Cats and Dogs
by hydras15
Summary: Cats and dogs, they don’t really ever get along, even more so when they’re ninja. Can one dog learn to care for a cat, and what is this about her Taijutsu?
1. Chapter 1 Blades of Grass and Steel

**Yes, yes, I know, here's the Kiba fiction I promised at the end of Dragonflies, it's just that I wanted to at least start my Iruka fiction first. Buuuuut here's the Kiba one! Enjoy! Sorry for such a long absence from it... hehehe? **

Cats and dogs, they don't really ever get along, even more so when they're ninja. Can one dog learn to care for a cat, and what is this about her Taijutsu? KibaXOCXShino

Though… I'm thinking that it might be Gaara instead of Shino, review and tell me what you guys want; it really all depends on you because I have a story plot for both… too many plots! HELP!

Oh, and for all those that read Siren's Song and Dragonflies, hey! You guys are my life blood! I love you're reviews and appreciate them a great deal! Always good to have readers that are dedicated to me as an author. So, as such, I'm obligated to try and not make the story suck ass. Lol

Seriously though, Gaara or Shino! Does a thumbs up depends on you guys!

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He only ever saw me as an enemy, an obstacle to over come. We would spend days fighting each other, hissing and barking orders at the other until our throats were raw, then we'd go home, and start it all the next day. I don't know why he saw me as such a threat. I never posed a threat to anyone but the people I was assigned to kill, and unless he ran from the village, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. I guess he was sore that I would always beat him in a fight, that my skills at hand to hand were better, and that I had been trained in advance jutsu's at an earlier age than he had. He also was never good at giving in whenever he lost, he would be bleeding, coughing up blood, and wheezing, but he would never give up and I would have to eventually sigh, whap him in the side of his neck, make him pass out, and wait five minutes until he woke up.

Things started to change though. I don't know when it happened, or why for that matter, but he started to look at me different. Whenever I got too close for his taste when we weren't fighting, or even when we were, he would stiffen and look away swiftly, as if my presence was something offensive. He also was starting to get sloppy in fighting, well, fighting me, and we had verbal battles when I saw him fighting someone else and doing things that he would not do in battle with me. When I demanded to know what it is that he hated about me so much as to dishonor my integrity as a shinobi, he yelled at me, spouting something I'll never forget.

He only ever saw me as an enemy, but… now he sees me as something more, and I think I see him as something more as well. Though don't tell him I said that, he'll get such a big ego I won't be able to face him for weeks!

**Chapter one: **

**Blades of Grass and Steel**

Sun shine. That's all there was, sunshine and swaying grass. The forest around the village was quiet and the only sound was the crunching of leaves from under a lone figures foot, the trees having shed the leaves in the dry summer heat. It didn't help that it was hot, so very fucking hot, and that the figure was wearing a jacket and trudging through the part of the forest that didn't have a pool of water anywhere within the next mile. A small bundle struggled in the figures arm, hissing and spiting at him while the figure just sighed and glanced up at the azure sky with slightly hateful eyes.

He was a higher rank ninja then this! He was a chuunin, a damn strong one at that, and here he was, delivering a pet back to its owner on a D-rank mission from his village. How the hell had he managed to get into this again? Eyes closed in memory and sighed as he recounted the ways that he had been lured into accepting this damn mission. Hinata was busy, and Shino had gone off on a B-rank mission by himself, so that left him to take care of it since Kurenai wouldn't be caught dead doing such a mission, her being a jounin and all. That didn't give them the right to unload all the grunt work onto his shoulders! They'd always be all 'Kiba, you have to do it, since everyone else is busy' or 'Kiba stop being a crybaby and do the damn mission'. He hated them all. They should all die a slow and painful death, especially Shino, that bastard; he kept getting better missions than him. Damn it all to hell.

Just then his ears pricked and the sounds of scuffling and clashing of steel blades slamming together filled his acute hearing. He stopped dead in his tracks, his large dog by his side stopping as well and glancing up at his pack member, cocking a confused brow on his massive head. More sounds, only this time, the shouting of attacks and the pulls and surges of someone using a great deal of chakra, A-rank Taijutsu from the feel of it. Kiba narrowed his eyes slightly, securing the struggling bundle to his hip, and started to walk forward towards the noise, sniffing at the air cautiously. If it was Shino he could just leave him and let him take care of whoever they were fighting, or if it was someone from the village sparring then he was fine, but from the sounds of it this was a fight to the death.

Just as he reached a small clearing, Akamaru, his faithful dog at his side wagging his tail in anticipation, out of the other side of the clearing came barreling a figure of a Cloud ninja, clad in battle gear, and slammed hard into the ground. Out of the forest surged the form of a jounin from his village, short brown hair whipping around their tanned face.

The cloud ninja struggled to a standing, bringing his kunai before him while the other whipped out a hand full of shuriken. Kiba watched intently, enamored with the coming fight and awed that he would get to witness something like this without either of them pouncing on him. The Konoha nin shouted and charged the other, their body bending close to the ground and curving around like a cats when the other tried to slice them. Two shuriken launched from the finger, one deflected but one hit its mark soundly in the shoulder, causing a stream of red to burst from the skin and armor. Akamaru whined at Kiba, wanting to join into the almost as much as his shivering master, but watched on as the jounin back flipped, dodging a blast of air filled with knifes and threw all of the throwing stars at the enemy at once.

Thinking this an easy ploy the Cloud shinobi swiped a large sword, knocking down and blocking all of the offending blades, but when his eyes flitted up he noted the jounin from the leave village was not there. He glanced around hurriedly, bringing his sword by his side while having a kunai clasped in the other hand. Wherever they were, they wouldn't get passed his rock solid defense. That is, unless they were in the rocks! The Cloud nin shouted in pain as the fighter shot from the ground behind him, rocks flying around them and their drawn kunai running a crimson line up the Cloud nin's back.

He staggered back and faced the other, blood now streaming down his back and legs while he gripped onto his weapons with dying strength.

"Shadow Clone no jutsu!" the Leaf shinobi shouted and instantly there were four others and all dashed forward with weapon ready and determination in their eyes. One slammed forward, forcing the weakened ninja to jump, only to be met with the knee of one of the clones, sending him flying back, then to be greeted by a swift kick upwards, forcing him to fly. While in the air the two others jumped up, their hands surrounded by chakra. The man tried do dodge but he was too covered in blood and wounds and when one's fist came into his gut, breaking any bones in his torso, the other span him around with a quick jolt to the arm and punched him in the spine, shattering all of his vertebra. He let out a shriek as he started to fall, the remaining leaf nin, now all clones gone, stood there with a chakra cloud flowing from them, the auras of the others dancing around and forming into almost panther looking cloud.

"Tiger no Jutsu, eight claws of death!" kunai rattled every knuckle and while the Cloud shinobi fell, unable to move or scream for the pain racking his body, the Leaf nin slid a foot back, their eyes glowing a deep golden and pulling back the kunai. In a leap the man was ripped to shreds, the offending kunai causing a cloud of red to rain down onto the ground beneath them while short brown hair came down to shade the eyes.

Kiba let out an excited breath. That had to easily be a B-Rank Taijutsu, one that even Might Gai would be interested in! Just then the jounin that Kiba and Akamaru had been watching so intently put their hands to their chest, doing a few hand signs, then hissed out a sea of flames onto the man they'd just killed, burning them into ash so that no one could ever use their secrets in their grave. Kiba stared in awe as the jounin turned and started to dash out of the clearing at a rapid speed, their kunai, still bloodied, back in the holster and their clothes splashed with crimson spray. He caught the scent instantly, he would never forget that scent, it was so strong and yet subtle. Water and rosemary, if he had to put into words that was what that jounin smelled like.

For one instant the jounin's head snapped around and bright amber eyes came to lock with his then narrowed and they were gone into the forest surrounding the clearing and surrounding Konoha. Kiba was rooted to the spot, he couldn't breath, he couldn't move. He had seen such blood lust, had seen such power, had seen nothing like that before in his life! That jounin had been… the amount of power they had given off was more than Kiba could wrap his mind around. Those eyes were burning into the back of his mind, seared with that look they had given him. He shivered and let out an almost painful breath, his eyes wide and his mouth twitching with his trademark smirk.

"Wow… Akamaru, can you believe what he just did?" Kiba asked and turned to his dog, a broad smile on his face. "That was amazing; I've only ever seen Taijutsu like that from Lee or Gai, but damn! What until Hinata and Shino hear about this! Then they'll be sorry they loaded this mission off on me!" Kiba said happily and threw the package over his shoulder and started to walk proudly back to his village, his headband gleaming in the sunlight. Akamaru gave out a deep bark before trotting after his pack mate, his ears pricking at any noise around them.

Bright golden eyes narrowed as they watched the youth that had spied on them during their fight walk away with its giant dog. The figure frowned deeply, bringing a bruised hand to lips that sucked on the wounds, licking at them like an injured animal while regarding the youth coldly. Who the hell was this kid to spy on the jounin during an important assassination mission? An A-rank mission! True… the fool had been easy to take down, and he had been unbearably weak compared to her sparing partner that usually showed up out of no where some nights, but still, it had been an important mission and she would have been blamed had the kid gotten hurt thanks to his carelessness.

A slight, almost cat like hiss came from lips and one of the bruised up hands swatted the light, almost blond brown hair from the sun scorched face. "Idiot… if I ever see him in the village he's gonna get it," a slightly fiery voice escaped the lips and they were gone in an instant, leaving the youth behind and the perking ears of his dog.

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It took about another two hours before Kiba reached the impressive gates of Konoha, stretching up high into the sun and gleaming like the doors of heaven itself. Or, so they looked to a certain dog nin, because right now he was really sick of walking and really, really hungry. He nodded to the guards outside of the entrance and waited patiently as the massive metal doors creaked open to allow him safe passage into his home village. The forest around him quieted at the sound, all animals froze as the mighty gates opened up to reveal Kiba's birthplace while he exhaled a much needed breath.

Konohagakure gleamed in the sunshine of afternoon, its buildings stretching up with white walls, gleaming red tile and blue tiles, and fences and roofs of wood as far as Kiba could see. In the far off distance stood the large, dome like building in which all of Konoha's missions and all of the goings on of the village, it was it's life source and blood, the office of the highest of all ninjas in his village, the Hokage. Kiba set foot into the village and let out a hesitant breath, his eyes glassing over at staring at the beauty of it all. Well he would be staring at the beauty of it all, had his nose not been overridden at that time by all of the sudden thrash of bodies in the mad house of the main road as he began to trudge his way down to the office.

Akamaru walked behind him, occasionally offering up a friendly bark to whomever passed them by, all the while the damn thing he had been sent to retrieve struggled against the strap that kept the bag tied to his waist. The fight was still replaying over and over in his minds eye, watching how she had forced the other ninja into her trap, into being led right into a powerful Taijutsu move that had most likely snapped his neck and then being shredded to pieces. He only wished that he could actually meet that guy so that he could see his technique up close and rub it in Lee's face.

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"So… Saiyuki, you tell me that your mission was a success?" the office was empty save for one solitary jounin, her head bowed and the leader of all of the Hidden Leaf Village staring at her. She nodded stiffly, her light brown hair shifting around her face while her eyes narrowed at the ground, body taunt and tense all over. The Hokage, now one Tsunade for the Third had been killed by Orochimaru, nodded slowly to her, interlacing her fingers while her kind eyes rested on the younger girl. The Hokage was a strange woman, though one of the legendary senin, she had rather large breasts that Saiyuki had a sneaking suspicion that were fake on some level, with long blond hair, and didn't look a day over thirty even though she was easily fifty.

Saiyuki shifted against the cold, polished wood floor of the Hokage's office, glowering while her eyes were slowly starting to drift open from a long blink. Tsunade regarded the girl with slightly raised eyebrows, putting a hand on her cheek. Saiyuki was around five foot five, short compared to other girls her age, with short, choppy light brown hair that had much longer strips tied up in two bindings down her back side all the way to her middle back, wore a dull red shirt with a massive turtle neck much akin to the one that Sasuke used to wear that had lashes down the front, keeping it closed, with a dark green and gold dragon coiling around the side until it rested on her clan symbol on the middle of the turtleneck, along with her shirt she wore long, black pants that had tatters on the ends and several holes that had been patched up around the knees and thighs from being in many, many fights in her career as a jounin. But what Tsunade found most fascinating about the girl was her eyes… those bright, flashing, amber eyes that shimmered with any emotion she was feeling, and if angered or under such a barrier of feelings they slit and became almost cat like. Like the girl they belonged to.

"Is there something wrong, Haraku?" Saiyuki's head jolted up from its steadily sinking position while her heart pounded in her throat. If Tsunade knew what had happened during the mission, that some kid had been spying on her then… fuck she'd be in trouble. Tsunade studied the girl over for a few seconds then waved it off, leaning back in her chair and glancing over her scroll report on the man she'd killed. "I know, it doesn't matter, you got the job done right? Anyway, good job in silencing that Cloud spy, though from your mission statement he was at most a high ranking chuunin?"

"Yes Tsunade-sama," Saiyuki bowed her head before smirking broad and running a hand over the nape of her neck. "But I would have been able to take him even if he had been a jounin," she said cockily.

Tsunade smiled at that and nodded her head slowly, "I don't doubt you, but, we must find a way to make you less arrogant, you may be the youngest of all the jounin Saiyuki-san, but you are still only seventeen and that means that you have to watch your chakra fluctuations very carefully…"

Saiyuki sighed and waved her hand around, imitating Tsunade with an annoyed look on her face, crossing her arms and cocking her head to the side, a large smile on her face. "You've given me this lecture time and again, Tsunade-sama, you act like you don't trust my chakra flows!"

"Well, given that your recent Taijutsu training has been getting more intense and your chakra cloud right now is thrumming around the room unchecked, I have every right not to trust it for a while. Now, did you get the enemies scroll that he had taken?"

"You mean this?" Saiyuki asked and pulled the scroll from the depths of her scroll pouch and threw it at the Hokage, her smile flitting away quickly. "What's so special about that scroll?" she asked slowly, not sure that the Hokage would tell her anything.

Tsunade raised her eyebrows at the girl then slowly twirled the scroll in her fingers. "None of your business I'm afraid, Haraku Saiyuki, now, if you would, I need to see other ninjas and as much as I enjoy your company," Saiyuki smiled brightly, putting her arms behind her head while her chakra retreated back into her body in a swirling cloud of bright red, "I must get back to work. Are you sure that there isn't anything else that happened in that mission that you would like to tell me about?" Tsunade asked, leaning back in her chair.

Sunshine caught Sai's amber eyes and she squinted, staring out into the village with a dazed look. The village was so beautiful at this moment… hard to believe the emptiness that was waiting for her should she go straight home after her report to the blond haired leader. Was there? It could have been an isolated incident, and the kid had only watched, he hadn't interfered, so there was no real reason to tell her superior of the boy watching her fight. But she felt horrible lying to the Hokage, and Tsunade of all people on top of that, but still.

There was a restlessness that had been growing in Saiyuki, even the woman sitting behind the massive desk could see it from this far away, because her once rounded pupils were slowly starting to elongate and slit and her shoulders were starting to tense. There was a war wagging in her mind, there always had been, but lately it seemed to be getting worse for her. Saiyuki walked over to the floor to ground windows that curved around the entire wall of the office, offering a splendid view of the village that the teen had vowed to protect.

"How's… the home life, Haraku?" Tsunade asked cautiously.

Sai didn't move from her spot, rooted to the ground while she lowered her head to where her amber eyes were hidden in her bangs, her hands resting on the glass of the windows. What to say? Horrible, yes, dramatic and draining, hell yea, to where she wished that she could just set her house on fire and run away, damn straight, but… there was nothing that the Hokage could do about it, she had made the mistake of telling the woman her home life once before, and had paid dearly for it, so she was not about to do it again.

She turned to Tsunade with a bright, cheery smile, putting her hands behind her head while saying happily, "pretty good! Why do you ask?"

"Sai…" before Saiyuki could open her mouth and lie to the Hokage more the elder woman held up a hand and stared at her intently, the skyline of Konoha providing a serene backdrop compared to the dark subject matter. "Why do you feel the need to lie to me? You can tell me if there's something wrong… is it…"

"I have to go now, later Tsunade-ba-chan!" and with that Tsunade was left to stare at a plume of smoke in the center of her office where a one Haraku Saiyuki had stood. She rubbed her temples and sighed, shaking her head. That was it, that girl would be the death of her one day!

She slumped forward slightly, knowing well that the next ninja would be in shortly after the disappearance of her favorite jounin. The girl was… messed up in more ways than one. She remembered the night that Saiyuki had stumbled into her office with tears streaking down her face and her fangs gnashing, yelling at the Hokage desperately and breaking down in her arms. Sadly, that was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen from the girl, since she shut her suffering away and put others before her, put her village before her, and even the one at her home that had long ago moved on and was leaving the girl in the dust. Tsunade had once asked her why she didn't just move, she was of legal age now… to which she'd replied very slowly and cautiously, looking as if the words hurt her very being…

The door suddenly burst open and in came striding the next ninja on her roster to hear from today. He stood before her proudly, his hand holding out the struggling sack while a large, white dog came lumbering behind him, its head lowered in fatigue. Tsunade frowned lightly at the intrusion, but then again she supposed it was a good thing that she'd been ripped from her dark, depressing thoughts, and glanced up to the shinobi before her warily.

"Kiba… good to see that you completed your mission this time," Tsunade commented and made his eyebrow twitch.

"It wasn't my fault that the damn cat was like fourteen and afraid of Akamaru," the dog nin growled and put his hands on his hips, Akamaru barking lightly in agreement. Tsunade raised her eyebrows then shrugged tiredly, extending her hand to retrieve that animal that Kiba had unceremoniously tossed into what looked to be a bag usually used for carrying fish.

"Yes, well, give it here and I'll make sure that the owner gets it back. Where is your mission statement scroll?" Tsunade asked, twitching her fingers and staring Kiba down. Kiba scowled then shrugged, actually tossing the still squirming package over to the Hokage and pulling out his mission scroll with a nonchalant look. Tsunade blanched at how Kiba just up and threw the object of his chuunin mission and grabbed it before it could hit the floor with her lightening fast reflexes and pulled it up to her desk, glaring at the youth. With a flick of her wrist the draw string was undone and the sack fell from around the small ball of fluff that was inside, and it commenced emitting odd squeaking noises.

"Why they wanted a chuunin to go and get their guinea pig is beyond me!" Kiba snarled and placed his mission scroll down onto the desk, sitting down into the chair and crossing his legs with a broad smirk on his face. Akamaru came and bound up next to him, taking a seat down besides Kiba who was regarding the small squeaking animal with contempt. "Though I did get a good show out of it," Kiba mused allowed, closing his eyes and remembering the fight between the Cloud Shinobi and that Jounin from their village.

Tsunade raised her eyebrows at this, stroking the terrified and rather disgruntled looking animal softly. What could he mean by that? Knowing him he probably managed to see some poor village maiden bathing in a stream and watched, all men were the same… But something told the Hokage that that wasn't it, that this went deeper than some flesh show, even though Kiba was craning his neck back and smirking positively happily. "What do you mean?" she asked slowly, sweeping up his scroll and unraveling it before her to check the squares that stated all was delivered intact and in prime order. Which from the way that this little thing was nuzzling into her hand affectionately the only harm done was by Kiba's attitude.

Kiba started from his day dreaming of the fight and grinned widely, pushing down his hood and showing off his wild brown hair. He ran a hand through it then put his hands on his knees, looking like some kid with a huge secret he couldn't wait to tell. "Well, on the way here, I saw some jounin from our village trouncing some other guy, couldn't see his face, but he had to be jounin! What's better is the Taijutsu he used! Guy had to be a specialist!" Kiba relayed excitedly, remembering the way that the jounin had twisted around, the final move they'd made, and then those fantastic eyes that had pierced into his very soul when they locked gazes. He shivered momentarily, making Tsunade raise her eyebrows. She didn't know that the boy was attracted to other boys… she might have to think about that later when she as assigning him. She'd always thought that there might be something between him and his fellow teammate Shino but…

"Hmm, that sounds fascinating," she breathed then her eyes widened slightly. Saiyuki's mission statement had said that she had fought the Cloud nin close to the village, that he had been weak, and that she was a Taijutsu specialist… She regarded the boy slowly then shrugged, assuring herself that she'd let the girl slide with it for at least the rest of the day, give her good time to think of an excuse. "Now, here's your pay for the month and the mission," Tsunade shuffled through her desk then pulled out the bag of coins that was for the mission and the village check that was for his monthly salary as a shinobi of Konohagakure.

Kiba was mildly aware of something that the blond Hokage was keeping from him. He wanted to know what could possibly be so important that she couldn't talk to him about it right to his face, and then it hit him. She knew who he was talking about! He tensed and shuddered visibly at meeting this person, wanting to see those moves again, to be taught some of them on a level, and to see if this guy was really as good as they had seemed. Kiba stood, bowed is respects to the higher ranking kunochi, and shuffled out of the room, Akamaru lagging behind slightly. The large dog turned it's head to Tsunade who raised her eyebrows then sniffed around the room, whimpering slightly, then following after Kiba who was already down the hall and tapping his foot impatiently.

The dog nin hummed happily as he made his way out of the office, his dog following on his heels while still whimpering oddly at him. Then Akamaru froze in his spot and turned towards the Hokage memorial that was carved into the face of the mountains that stood guard over the village.

"You wanna go over there or something, Akamaru?" Kiba asked, narrowing his sharp eyes. The dog didn't wait for him to answer and was off towards the platform that one stood on to observe the monument.

Saiyuki frowned as she perched on the railing of the monument, her hair blowing before her amber eyes while her arms crossed over her knees. She closed her eyes and let all of the world slip away while listening to the whispers of the wind, telling her the stories of the world and all it's happenings of that day. Her feet conformed to the shape of the rail all the while the curved form of the cat like kunochi stared vaguely up at the leaders of the village's past.

'You're so weak! You're a monster!' her mind yelled at her, echoing her own past while her body shook in repressed emotions. Number one rule, she told herself then came to a standing on the railing that was no thicker than an inch, and stared up at the monument with a blank gaze.

A bark filled her sensitive ears, causing them to perk at the sound, and she turned with her hair flying before her face and her eyes seeming to glow in the light of the mid-day. Coming before her was a large white dog that looked rather like it had a smashed muzzle in her opinion, and when it stopped before her she felt her hairs on the back of her neck bristle. She hissed lowly at it, her eyes slitting warningly, her hands coming to her hips while she and the dog exchanged glares.

"Akamaru, what the hell is your deal?" a loud shout filled the silent glares and transaction going on between dog and cat. Saiyuki turned with a weary gaze as the dogs owner came running up, his eyes trained on the large white animal before her. The boy stopped and finally it seems spotted Saiyuki there, with her brown hair floating around her sun scorched face and her amber eyes slender with agitation. She did not like dogs… and from the looks of the teenager, no older than sixteen, he looked like one as well. With wild, unruly brown hair, slit like eyes that were no where near being called innocent and actual fang like teeth, she decided right off the bat that he was too much like a hound for her tastes. And that was before his scent invaded her sensitive nose.

Kiba shifted and raised an eyebrow at the girl before him, his eyes scanning over her body slowly. She was all right looking if you liked them muscular and kinda scary looking. She had mid neck length choppy brown hair that was almost blond and had what looked to be longer strands of it tied up in the back with long bindings that came down to the small of her back, fanning out in an almost lions tail. Her body was ripped, he could tell even from here, and the way that her hands were curled into fists showed off every single muscle in her arm, he almost envied the girl for pure muscle tone. He scanned her outfit and found that it wasn't too bad, with dark blue pants that were cuffed at the mid calf, her hitai-ate wrapped around her leg, and a dark red short sleeved turtle neck like that traitor Uchiha used to wear with golden lashes down the front. But what caught Kiba suddenly were those eyes, glowing amber with what looked to be slits. That color… it was just like…

"You stink, you know that?" her voice suddenly ripped into his head and he was shaken from his wonderings.

"Excuse me?" Kiba demanded hotly, snarling at her like Akamaru was right now. She put a hand on her hip and cocked her head to the side, her mouth in a firm frown while her nose was wrinkled up slightly.

"You smell like dog, you stink, horribly, verging on reek," Saiyuki stated, swatting at her nose then flicked a piece of her hair from before her startling eyes.

No! This chick couldn't be the jounin he saw out in the fields! She was… well… a she! The one he had seen had to have been a boy, there was no way that a girl could have that much power behind an attack! He then sniffed at the air and winced, swatting at his nose like she had and growling lowly at her, his eyes narrowing in disdain. "You're one to talk! You reek so fucking bad! You smell like a cat! Like a whole mess of 'em!" he complained, suddenly realizing that the reason why his dog had freaked was because he had smelled this girl.

Saiyuki hissed at him and put her hands on her hips, her face contorting into a displeased scowl. He was saying she stunk? Who the hell did he think he was? "You're a weak little chuunin that doesn't know his place," she spat at him, feeling the air around them starting to thicken with the promise of a fight.

Kiba felt his hackles start to raise as he had to resist the urge of just jumping on this chick and making her apologize for saying all that shit! Who the hell did she think she was? And how the hell did she get off saying that he was a lowly chuunin when she was too? "You're one to talk, bitch! Who the hell do you think you are to talk to me that way?"

"A jounin that has more important things to do than to talk to a boy that smells like wet dog," and with that Saiyuki crouched and teleported out of the boys sight and smell. Kiba snarled and glanced to his faithful dog, running a hand through his messed up hair.

"Whatever, not like I care or anything, right, Akamaru?" the dog barked and the two set off away from the sight of the argument.


	2. Chapter 2 Kunochi and Panthers

**Chapter two:  
Kunochi's and **

**Panther's**

Saiyuki slid open the door to her home, her amber eyes piercing into the darkness with a slit and commanding look. The last thing she wanted right now was to stumble along her house in the blackness that came when one didn't turn on a light. She stared out into the emptiness, her eyes slowly coming into a resignation. The jounin girl walked into the room, running a hand through her honey brown hair while uttering several curses under her breath.

Yes… this was right, the dark. She was used to the dark. She liked the dark. It was comforting; it wrapped around her and offered her a place to hide from her inner demons that were trying to devour her almost every second of her waking life. Saiyuki padded through the house, her footsteps ringing through the night air while her mind was preoccupied with her latest mission. Was it just her or was the war becoming more active, was Orochimaru allying himself with the Cloud nin? But then Tsunade would have told her if they had. Maybe that's what the scroll had in it, and who was to say that Tsunade had any responsibility to her to tell her anything? None really. That didn't make the jounin girl feel better.

She let out a small growl as she plopped down onto her couch, her eyes drifting closed. All she wanted now was a good nap, then a shower, then a nice hot meal. That's all, was that too much to ask? Apparently her pet thought differently.

A low growling sound alerted her to his presences and when her amber eyes flittered open, still slit in the dark and glowing like the cats eye that they so resembled, she turned her weary head. There, padding almost silently across the room, was the graceful form of her pet. Its large yellow and green eyes glowed sharply, even more than hers, and its hulking, muscular body was coated in glistening black fur that rippled over strong muscles. Around its thick but long and elegant neck was a hitai-ate headband, just like the one wrapped around Saiyuki's leg. The massive animal came to a stop at her side, running it's massive head over her arm almost wistfully while low growls were escaping his hearty throat.

"Hey, Saito… you miss me?" she purred at him, grinning gently and bringing his square shaped head to press against hers, forehead to forehead. He let out a low thrum of a response, his thick tail flicking back and forth while his teeth, long and pearly white, flashed at her a moment. "How is my lovely panther this evening?" she asked and rubbed her forehead against his softly, running her fingers down his sleek body.

He snarled lightly, slicking his tongue against her cheek. "All right, all right, I'll get you food… geez, I'm tired and just got back from a mission and here you are bugging me…" Saiyuki laughed and stood, crossing her arms over her chest and staring down at him. Saito snorted, his broad nose wrinkling in distaste of her statement as his thick tail swished around irately. "Fine, fine, geez, no need to use bad language! Cats, I swear, I had to be born into a cat family," she said, waving a hand around vaguely.

Saiyuki could feel Saito's soft fur against her leg as she walked his large head pressing at it and low purring noises coming from his deep chest. You would think with how he carries on that I never feed him… she thought with a smirk, shaking her head. Having a panther was sometimes more work than she really needed. She arrived at the refrigerator, regarding it slowly as she wrapped a hand around it. "Okay, so, do you want beef or chicken or what?" she asked, shuffling through the many stores of raw meat she had to keep her large cat satisfied.

Saito cocked his head to the side, staring at her intensely, and then almost seemed to shrug, his large eyes still holding hers. Saiyuki rolled her eyes, "you know you really should at least widen your pallet, I mean, I get you beef and all you want is chicken," she complained and threw a full raw chicken at him from the fridge, having it land square in his massive fang laden maw before it could even hit the floor. "If you're not going to eat the steaks then I am," she stated matter of factly and pulled out one massive slab of red meat that was still glistening with raw blood inside of it.

The cat jounin listened as her partner ripped into the food hungrily, snarling and growling at it protectively. She shook her head, sighed, then grabbed one of her kunai from her pouch on her leg and started to cut the fat and the undesirable bits from the large slab of meat. This would make up for her three days of eating nothing but berries and whatever she could find. Her pack had washed down stream after she had accidentally stumbled into a genjutsu that forced her to jump into a river to break it. Needless to say that she had been pissed after that, because she needed her muscles to be in top condition twenty four seven, and eating only berries and herbs had done nothing but make her slightly weaker. Being a Taijutsu master she needed to be on top of her game at all times, her body needed to be in perfect shape, she needed every muscle to be fine tuned to perfection for fighting.

Though… that had it's draw backs. She didn't look like the other girls, at least not a whole lot. She was stronger physically for one, her arms were cut and you could see every curve and edge, unlike the other girls that were slender, curving just right while still having a soft look to them. She was hard, she was defined, she was intimidating and she knew it. That was why she had never had a guy ask her out before; they all feared her, and some actually called her –kun, implying that she was a boy.

The steak hit the pan with a loud sizzle, the sounds of crunching bone the only thing in the small house louder than it. She prodded at it with a sharp fork, her eyes glassy and distant looking while her fangs fell over her lower lip cautiously. "Saito… do you ever miss them?"

The large panther stopped eating, a large chicken leg dangling from his mouth while his eyes narrowed on her. He shifted then laid down, flipping his tail back and forth, then turned down to the floor with an almost sorrowful look on his usually impassive furred face. Saiyuki scowled lightly at this then turned back to her steak, slowly flipping over.

"I do to… I wish that today could be completely taken off of the calendars, ya know? It's just so… painful," Saiyuki breathed and closed her eyes when something started to burn at the edges. Saito rumbled at her and as the sun scorched brunette turn the steak over again, the air filling with the scent of cooking meat, his body came up behind her legs and pressed into them comfortingly. She reached down a strong hand, running scarred up fingers over his blunt head, suddenly finding that the more she stared at the food cooking before her the more her appetite fell.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba grumbled as he sat on the bed in his room, glaring at the wall while the many dogs of the family all came in and out of his room as they pleased. This might be the only bad part about being with a pack, you never got a moment to yourself! That… and the… occasional case of the fleas… BUT THAT WAS RARE!!

Kiba snarled and flopped back, his slender eyes glaring up at the ceiling. The shifting in the mattress informed him that Akamaru, the huge white dog that he commanded and was partners in crime with, had decided to join his master on the bed. He reached out an idle hand, stroking into the fur while listening to the big dogs breathing. Slowly but surely he lulled the dog into a sleep with his caresses, comforting him from the slight turmoil that his master was feeling, all the while Kiba continued to brood and stare up at the ceiling. This was something he didn't make a habit of doing. Brooding wasn't his thing, he didn't like doing it. It was indecisive, cowardly, you didn't act on impulse which was what he usually did, all you did was sit and think. It might explain why he and Sasuke had never gotten along at all in the beginning anyway. Damn brat…

Kiba again snarled, rolling over onto his side and staring at the wall with fiery eyes. He hated the boy now, the idiot that had abandoned them all and gone to become more 'powerful' with that stupid sanin Orochimaru. They had fought to get him back, to bring him home, so that he wouldn't have to be banished from Konoha like his brother, but had he saw it that way? No! In fact, Akamaru and Kiba had almost died in their own fight against that two headed freak! And what had the stupid Uchiha done? Crossed the border anyway!

Now there were reports of him killing villages, because he could, of him defeating opponents ruthlessly and leaving them a bloody pulp. He was a monster. He also remembered the look on the girl that had shared a team with him when the punk had left, he didn't want to ever see that look on a girl again. Pure sorrow, unadulterated betrayal, and tears streaking down her face. Those scents burned in his mind even now, and Kiba didn't think he could ever forget them. He supposed that's when he really started to talk to the former team seven members, before Naruto left to train as well. He felt bad for them, but he also saw just how much pain someone leaving can cause. It was horrible. Even Naruto had changed that day, he wasn't the same after that no matter how much he tried to act the same, the dog could tell just by smelling his scent. He was darker. He was jaded. He wasn't… pure anymore.

That damn Uchiha would pay for that. Kiba had always admired Naruto on some levels, even back in their academy days, though at the time he would never admit to it. He admired that indefinable spark, that defiant flare in his blue eyes, and his never say never attitude. He was what the human race was at its core. And that bastard of an Uchiha had dared to take it upon himself to change all of that! Where the hell did he get off on doing something like that!?

'I'm an avenger…'

"Avenger my ass, you're a bastard and you know it!" Kiba hissed. The large dog from behind Kiba whimpered with the sudden surge in his master's scent and his chakra, placing his massive head on the boys arm and staring at him wearily. Kiba blinked then glanced to him with an unreadable look on his features.

"Sorry Akamaru, did I wake you up?" Kiba asked with a cock of an eyebrow. Akamaru snorted at the boy and the chuunin grinned at him, running a hand over the dogs head. "Ah, don't worry about it! It's nothing I can't handle! Now, go back to sleep," he commanded and to his surprise he did… on his arm. Kiba growled but rolled his eyes and pulled up his sheets cautiously, being careful not to wake his partner.

Kiba had, however, learned of what happened to the Uchiha clan. That Itachi, Sasuke's brother, had killed them all and spared only smaller heir, just because he could. He couldn't imagine how hard it had been on the kid, but that was no reason to go and become a complete and total jack ass! Growing up alone didn't sound so bad! Hell, you got the whole place to yourself! Sometimes Kiba wished he was raised like that!

Kiba glanced out into the night through his window, his mind suddenly flashing on the fight he'd seen today. The impressive Taijutsu had been executed perfectly, never leaving an opening for the enemy to respond, going straight for the kill shot and never wavering. It had been an awesome sight to see and he hoped that he would one day get to see it again. Though hopefully he wouldn't have to see it from the opposing end… he had a feeling that it would hurt… a lot. Okay, so he'd be dead, but still, he rather disliked the idea of dying a painful death, as cowardly as that sounded. Then that girl that had been at the Hokage monument flared up and Kiba felt himself bristle in anger at the girl.

How dare she say that he stunk when she smelled like a fucking cat! And not just one cat, no, from the smell of it she lived with a few ten, maybe even over forty. That or one big one, but who the hell would live with a big cat!? That was suicide! Kiba let his anger roll through him before his eyes started to shift closed, his fingers digging into the blanket that was wrapped around him and Akamaru. The last thing he felt before falling into the realm of sleep was his dogs hot breath on his neck and one of his paws twitching in his slumber.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saiyuki jumped from rooftop to rooftop, her hair whipping behind her. She was late, very late, the Hokage had called for her at ten, but her delivery guy, some dude with silver hair that had greeted her with 'Yo' had come so late that it was now one in the afternoon! Tsunade was going to have her hide!!

She threw her hands together in a seal and propelled herself on chakra laden feet, her mouth pulled back in a fang ridden snarl. Kami, what could Tsunade possibly want to talk to her about? She hadn't done anything wrong, not that she had remembered that was, and when she launched herself hard off of one of the roofs, having to clear a good long distance of at least fifty yards, she heard a growl of protest from behind her. Saiyuki threw a glance behind her, dust trailing from the roof after her, to see her panther running after her. He snarled and with a great heave of his impressive muscle was in the air after his master, glittering black fur standing out starkly in the suns blinding light.

Saiyuki landed with a soft thud then waited a few seconds until she could feel her companion had landed on the roof and began to run anew, the Hokage's office just in sight. Late, late, late! I'm never late! Wait… I'm never late! Saiyuki thought frantically as she flipped from off of the roof and down into the streets below that had been clear enough to allow her and her plummeting cat passage. Maybe I can say that since I'm never late I deserve one reprieve… right?

Saito landed with a graceful pad, his head jerking up towards her while his headband glinted at the same height as hers. She frowned and nodded to him, sliding her legs over his back and gripping around his neck, narrowing her amber eyes. "Let's go Saito, fast as you can ol' buddy!" she hissed to him and he was off in a hurling of pure muscle, his tail working as a rudder.

Passerby's and even those in their way, all blanched and moved out of the way, flinging themselves against a wall nearest to them. They acted like they'd never seen a panther in the middle of a street with a girl on its back before! Geez, stupid people, she thought and held onto his neck faster as he jumped over one stand, clearing it with his claws outstretched for the ground.

If she ever saw that other jounin that had been LATE delivering an important message she'd break him in half with her Taijutsu!! The Hokage's office was now right before them, but, Saito, suddenly deciding that the door wasn't prompt for a cat of his status, leapt and broke through a window, making Saiyuki shield her eyes and yelp at him. Great. Now she was tardy and she'd broken a window in the blond woman's office! What else could possibly go wrong!? What else could she be yelled at for in one day???

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You were seen on your last mission!! And not just by anyone, but a chuunin!!! An A-rank assassination mission!! Do you know the implications for that!? You're lucky that it was a Konoha chuunin otherwise we'd have your stats plastered all over enemy databases not to mention they could have killed you and taken that scroll!!" Saiyuki cringed, taking a step back while the blond woman before her raged, a sake bottle in hand and her brown eyes flaring at the cat jounin. Saiyuki wince, putting up defensive hands while smiling and laughing nervously.

"Well, then, no harm no foul right? I mean, Tsunade-baa-chan, lemme explain…" but her words fell on deaf ears as Tsunade continued her rant on the poor girl.

"And what's worse is that scroll held very VERY sensitive information in it!!! You could have given away a lot of strategy secrets!!! You could have brought down your own village!!" Tsunade bellowed, slamming her fist into the desk and cracking it in half. Saiyuki blanched taking another few steps back while glancing to Saito. The scardy-cat was in a corner of the office, cowering away from the older woman and staring at her with wide, horrified eyes. Great… if her panther was afraid that didn't bode well for the teen.

"Tsunade-sama, please! And wasn't it just an interception mission? Aren't you blowing things out of proportion??" Wrong! Wrong thing to ask! Saiyuki bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood as the blond woman with the huge boobs wheeled on her, her chakra sparking off of her dangerously.

"What did you say!? This has nothing to do with the specifics of your mission! I'm speaking of your negligence!! What if that was a mission to steal back information!? You wouldn't' have noticed that other ninja until too late!! Until they had already witnessed your fighting style and had formed a plan to kill you then take the scroll!!! This cannot go unpunished!!" Tsunade bellowed. She took another swig of sake, as if to calm her already frazzled nerves, and sat down in her large chair, placing a hand to her forehead and trying to breathe deeply.

Saiyuki panted from fear of the display, her eyes wide while her fangs were clicking uncertainly. How had she known about that?! Had the idiot told Tsunade about it?? Fuuuuuuuck! Saiyuki spotted her chance to explain herself and took a cautious step forward, perfectly able right now to join her panther in the corner while the elder woman raged. Right now it seemed favorable actually.

"Tsunade-baa-chan, please, let me explain!" Saiyuki pleaded, bowing her head. Tsunade regarded her with a blood shot eye from her position in her folded arms, her blond hair cascading around the pale extremities. She waved a tired hand, muttering under her breath 'if you must'. Saiyuki took a deep, courage infusing breath, and said with a slight snarl on her face, "I admit I should have sensed the boy, but his energy signal was so low and he was down wind of me. In all fairness though, I did spot him, but I recognized him as a Konoha shinobi from his forehead protector, so I didn't think that it would give much prudence to do an investigation and…"

"And you were LAZY!! Protocol, Haraku, PROTOCOL! Any and all witnesses must be questioned and evaluated!! You should have spoken to him at the very least!!" Tsunade shouted at the top of her lungs and Saiyuki took refuge with her pet, cowering from the now towering form of the Hokage, shaking like a leaf. Okay, so maybe there were more things for her to yell at Saiyuki than the broken window and being late… and she hadn't even gotten to those things yet. This was proving to be a frightening day!!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba and Akamaru made their way down the roads of Konoha in a fog of boredom. Yet again Shino and Hinata weren't available for his amusement, and there weren't any missions he was being assigned any time soon. So, in other words, the poor dog nin was completely and utterly bored! Having completely forgotten the night of brooding he had done last night, one some occasion he was sure he'd pick up where he'd left off, and was now completely immersed in cursing his teammates for leaving him in the lurch.

Was it too much to ask for like one day of company? They hadn't hung out in like three days, and as much as it made him slightly fidgety to admit it, he wanted to see them again. He liked their smells, they were familiar, they were comforting, and even better, he could tell if any of them had some food he could mooch off of them. Namely Hinata, the poor girl couldn't refuse the inu. Akamaru made his presence known by brushing against his leg, barking at some random person that must have been trying to get the rather ticked Kiba's attention. He wasn't going to pay attention to anyone unless they could somehow interest him in something other than menial drabble.

Just as he was thinking that he was going to be lost in boredom all day the road forked and his feet had brought him to the streets that lead to the large domed office in the middle of the village. The Hokage's office. He suddenly smirked widely, his narrow eyes dancing at the thought of teasing Tsunade some and even Sakura! He was just about to make his merry way down the one road that lead down to it when something caught his senses.

There, coming out of the Hokage's office with a rather large lump on her head, was the girl that he had seen yesterday that had dared to say that he stank. He heard Akamaru let out a lowly growl, his hackles rising, and as Kiba's eyes raked over the body of the girl they found their way down to the thing she was riding. It took him a moment to realize what it was, because he was so shocked, not because he was simple of course, but who the hell would have something like that in the village, and much less be riding on it!? The girl was riding on the back of a rather large, jet black, shinning fur and muscular form of what appeared to be a panther! A panther! A big cat! As in hunted and killed animals in the rainforest and possibly the very dog nin if he ever crossed one and couldn't defend himself.

Saiyuki squinted against the sun, clenching her fingers into Saito's strong neck as she sat back. Her long braids that ran down her back flicked over her shoulder while the rest of her shorter brown hair blew around in the pleasant summer breeze. For the first time in a while it was cool, well, cooler. She purred at the massive creature between her legs and moved to order him to head home, when something caught her eyes and her ears.

There, standing just shy of a hundred yards, was the form of the boy that had reeked of wet dog! And then had dared to imply that it was her that stunk, and not him! She snarled, settling onto Saito's back as he hissed, his muzzle drawing up over his blunt nose and showing off the rows upon rows of sharp teeth. And he had his dog with him… she observed coldly, her eyes slowly starting to shift into a slit position.

"What do you want, dog?" Saiyuki hissed lowly, sliding from her cats back cautiously. If this boy wanted to start something he'd picked the wrong team to pick it with.

"You're one to talk, cat, and why the fuck do you have a panther in the middle of a village?? That thing could go all wild kingdom on you and slaughter you!" Kiba snarled, a smirk spreading on his features.

Saiyuki scoffed at Kiba, running a hand through her blunt honey brown hair. There was an electricity in the air, as if were waiting to see what would and could happen here. "Saito is a trained ninja animal, he would sooner stoop to being a pampered dog like your little pup here than to attack me," she snarled right back, her fangs snapping in agitation. She could feel her non existent shackles rising, could feel her blood boiling just being in this boys presence. She didn't like him. There was something in him that screamed ENEMY!

Kiba took his turn to scoff, letting a cocky grin come to his features while their two ninja animals growled warningly at the other. "Akamaru could take down you're little kitty cat any day of the week!"

Saiyuki took her turn to smirk, her hands clenching fiercely. She smelt a battle… "Is that a challenge, dog boy? Don't you think you should bathe first? You still reek, if not worse," she growled right back, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

Kiba narrowed his eyes indignantly at that, his mouth pulling into a dark growl. If he really were a dog he would look much like Akamaru did right now, back hunched, fur raised, fangs barred, and eyes glowing with the threat before him. Oh yes. She was a threat. He didn't know why, but she was a threat! He was getting on his nerves so bad that he just wanted to maul her right then and there. "Yea, in fact it is! C'mon, cat, let's see what you've got!!"

Saiyuki laughed at his, her eyes sharpening and the slit in them becoming thinner and thinner until she looked like a demon while her fangs were falling over her lower lip. Foolish kid, was all she thought then slid onto Saito's back, running her hand over his smooth fur, glaring at Akamaru harshly. "Fine, follow me, idiot, though challenging a kunochi that's a rank above is very stupid!" And with that Saito took off, Akamaru not far behind with Kiba holding onto his thick white fur.

This would be interesting.


	3. Chapter 3 Humility is a trait we learn

**Chapter three:  
Fight against a cat**

"**Humility is a trait we learn."**

**Okay, it's been decided that Gaara will be the other main character, so the pairing is as follows, KibaXOcXGaara, the OC of course being Saiyuki. Thanks to all those that voted! Thankies for all the reviews as well! I LURVES YOU ALL!! **

Growling filled the space of the training yards of Konoha, two ninja facing down one another while their companions were hissing and spitting at the other. Golden eyes flashed on brown ones, set, determined not to lose, and there was just as fierce a determination in the others eyes as well. Neither of these prideful shinobi were going down without a massive fight…

"Who the hell are you anyway? I want to know who I'm about to pound into the ground." Kiba asked with a cocky grin, his eyes darkening and his fangs clicking together menacingly.

Saiyuki snickered, her pupils sliding back into their normal state. "Then I don't see why I have to tell you, seeing as how you're the one who's going to be whimpering for mercy," she said with a shrug of her shoulders, shaking her head as if it were a universal truth that everyone knew. Kiba snarled at her insult, bringing out several kunai and shuriken and sinking down into a crouched position. Saiyuki merely flexed her knuckles and started to wrap them idly in bandages, her eyes never leaving his as he and his dog got into position.

Saito hissed in anticipation, his fangs seeming to sharpen and his body starting to pulse with the same chakra as his master. This would be a good fight… Kiba charged Saiyuki, tired of her just sitting there and wrapping up her limbs like some god damn cocky cat and created three shadow clones of himself. Saiyuki hissed at this then jumped back, flinging out three kunai, two piercing through the shadow clones and the real one catching the weapon effortlessly. He jumped up to meet her, a smirk on his face, but was tackled to the ground by the hulking form of her jungle cat.

"If you want to play that way then fine!" her voice suddenly shouted into the air and Saito was off of him in a heart beat, meeting up jaw to jaw with Akamaru, white and black fighting for dominance. Kiba was just starting to come up to a standing when Saiyuki took her turn to charge, her form low to the ground and a kunai in each finger. She snarled at him and swiped, narrowly missing his coat, and when he span around to kick her she caught his leg and sent him barreling to the floor with a firm knee to the side.

Kiba was reeling as he rolled away when her heel came crashing hard into the ground, causing it to splinter under her and form a crater the size of his torso! He stared at her in horror as she flipped back and landed on a near by rock, her hair flying around her face. What the hell was this chick!? He'd never seen anyone but Tsunade do something like that! Or maybe Sakura! She'd have to be trained in Taijutsu like Lee in order to be able to make a connection like that!

"You just going to stare, chuunin?" she asked in a condescending voice, her eyebrows raised in question. Kiba snarled at her and charged quickly, blurring into the air and forcing chakra into his feet. If she was going to play with advanced jutsu, he would too!

"Shadow clone no jutsu!" Kiba shouted again only this time there were four of him and they all charged full speed at her in different directions. Saiyuki narrowed her eyes and jumped into the air, followed swiftly by the four. She span around and kicked on firmly in the shoulder, forcing it to fall into another one and ram into the ground, the air filling with smoke. Kiba came up behind her, his hands holding his kunai fiercely while the other Kiba came up in front. They both moved to strike at the same time, forcing her to divide her attention, only to be met with a surprise. Saiyuki turned through the air, slicing through the clone with her kunai laden hands then span around by swinging her legs about her body and slammed her fist into Kiba's jaw, sending him plummeting into the ground.

Kiba let out a gag, his fingers digging into the ground while his body recoiled with the force of the hit. He coughed up a small amount of blood, coming to his hands and knees while the sounds of hissing and snarling filled his ears. Sounded like Akamaru was having a hard time of it with the panther this chick had brought to the fight with her, and it didn't make it any better that it seemed the dog was doing as poorly as his master. She was just so fast, so strong! He didn't know how the hell he was supposed to go about this! It was like fighting with Lee!

Kiba flipped from his spot just when Saiyuki's fist came crashing down where he'd been, her eyes flaring over at him while the earth buckled and cratered under her. She whipped around, swinging her leg through the air, and almost caught his side but Kiba brought up an arm and hand and blocked it with a grunt. That was going to leave a fucking bruise! What was this chick made of!? Steel? It felt like he was getting hit with bricks ever time she landed any of her attacks! Saiyuki smirked darkly at him, her fangs falling over her lower lip ominously. She then dropped to her hands and whirled her legs around quickly, clipping Kiba in the elbow and causing him to yelp in pain.

He staggered back, gripping his wound and watching as she came to a full standing, languidly finishing the bandages on her arms and then started to wrap some around the parts of her legs she could get to. She was treating him like he wasn't even a threat!! He'd show her just how much of a threat he really was!! Kiba snarled as he threw his hands together, his eyes narrowing sharply. "Beast mimicry jutsu! All Fours Attack!" he shouted and dropped to his hands and feet, his nails elongating into claws and his fangs sharpening, his face even becoming more animal looking.

Saiyuki raised her eyebrows at this, her mouth parting in an amused and interested smile. This was getting more fun by the minute… maybe he wouldn't be boring after all. "Great, now you smell even more like a dog," she said off handedly, waving her hand around as if to clear the air of an offensive scent. Kiba bristled at that, snarling as he charged right at her, moving far faster now than he had before, his eyes sharpening and his every sense screaming for revenge! She wouldn't get away with such insults towards him, especially when she was just like some stupid ass cat!!

However, just as he would have pounced on her the damn black hulking shadow of hers pounced on him, pinning him to the ground with a snarl of his massive maws and his dark amber and green eyes flaring in rage. "Good boy Saito, now!" Kiba glanced over in time to see Saiyuki go into a fighting stance and a dark chakra start to roll off of her body, her eyes starting to slit and her fangs elongate. "Your family isn't the only ones that can do such a thing, Inuzuka," she snarled and her claws were flexing within moments, her face curling up in a very cat like hiss while her shoulders moved around to get a better situation. She turned and jumped just when Akamaru would have taken her down to the ground but he didn't stop and instead barreled into Saito who had been about to slice Kiba open.

Saiyuki landed in time to be caught by surprise with a fist in her gut, her eyes widening and blood flecking from her mouth. She hissed and turned to Kiba who was glaring at her from under his wild hair, his mouth pulled back in a snarl. She grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder, and when he was sent skidding back on his hands and feet, crouched like an animal, she charged, her eyes wild and her body on fire from a fight this infuriating. It was as if this very boy was making her enraged just by being in his presence, and that he had laid hand on her just made the Taijutsu specialist all the more angry.

"No more holding back!" she snapped and when he moved to dodge her kick she vanished from his range of sight and he found himself with his face right above the ground, a knee in his gut and clawed hands gripping his jacket. He gasped but didn't have time to react as he was sent flying by a throw from those powerful arms, right into Akamaru who had been circling around a patiently waiting Saito.

When Kiba managed to get up to his feet, panting and blood drizzling from the side of his mouth and a gash on his right hand, he stared at the girl with narrowed eyes. Fine! This shit was intense, so he'd have to stop holding back just because she was a damn girl! Without another word the two beast ninja flew at each other, fangs gnashing and claws drawn.

The two came together in a clash of snarling, yelling, grunting, and flashing of claws. Blood flew from one of the combatants, landing with a splash on the ground. Jutsu's were thrown out, doppelgangers, fire balls, energy bolts, illusions, all were sparking around the field while the cat and the dog waged what looked more like war than a battle. Saiyuki span around while in the air, followed by three other hers, and all four of them kicked the ground hard with their heel, leaving a crater and forcing Kiba to the ground to stabilize himself. This left enough time for the real Saiyuki to dash at him, kick him into the air, followed by the three clones. They circled around him then unleashed a barrage of punches as Kiba tried to block them, shielding his body with his arms and legs.

He gagged and coughed up small amounts of blood, rolling over and glaring at the solitary form of Saiyuki, her hair flying around her face and the small cut he'd managed to land on her face drizzling a small amount of red. He snarled, coming wearily to his feet and bringing out a kunai, holding it fiercely. It was like fighting with Kurenai! Maybe this chick really was a jounin!

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted and instantly the dog came running, covered in cuts and matted with dirt from its tangle with the black panther. The panther snarled and walked slowly over to its master, his head held low and predatory gaze fixated on the large white dog.

"Ready to give in, dog?" Saiyuki purred at him, running a thumb over the trail of red and leaving a smear in its wake, dying the skin the dark crimson color. Her eyes were still slit but her face was surprisingly serene, as if she was convinced she had already won the battle.

"You wish! Akamaru, let's go!" the large dog suddenly threw back its head, barking some incessant noise. Saiyuki covered one ear, wincing while hissing at Kiba, watching as the large dog suddenly morphed into a doppelganger of the boy. She smirked, her eyes widening and her fangs clicking together. This could prove fun after all… The two Kiba's suddenly threw their arms out and started to turn rapidly, suddenly forming into a tornado each and shot at her.

Saiyuki swore under her breath, turning to Saito with a quick nod, and both jumped out of the way. She flipped around, running as fast as she could as one tornado came after her doggedly, determined to hit her while the other went after Saito. Saiyuki frowned, jumped into a tree and started running along the tree lines, her eyes narrowed and focused. She could bet that he could only hold this jutsu for so long, there was only a limited amount that one could spin around mindlessly and not get sick or dizzy, so all she had to do was to keep outrunning it! She flipped from a branch just in time as the tornado barreled straight through the tree. She turned and had chakra sparking around one of her hands, which she balled up into a fist as the jutsu that Kiba was in the center of came barreling towards her.

"Fist of the Tiger, Full Force Assault!" she shouted and slammed her fist into the tornado, large whipping tendrils of energy shocking from both attacks. The winds of the attack slowly started to spasm out of control while a cut was opened up on of her unclothed arms, but it was worth it for just as there was another lash out from his attack coming for her, her strength and chakra pushing against the tsunami of power that was Kiba's barrage, he was forced to abandon it and was sent flying back. He landed in a crouched position, blood now running down from his lips again and a black eye starting to show on his face.

Akamaru was suddenly next to Kiba, his body shivering from exhaustion while the form of Saiyuki's pet started to circle the two, his mouth parted and his maw of glowing white fangs snapping at them peevishly. Saiyuki walked over, looking just like her animal, and put her hands in her pockets, a smug look on her face. God how Kiba hated cats, they were so high and mighty, thinking they were superior! He ignored the bruises, the lesions all over his body, and pounced at the girl, his face wild at the thought of losing to someone like her.

"You don't know when to stop!" Saiyuki snapped and thrust out her hand, sending out a chakra push and forced him to go sliding back a few feet, his arms held before his head in defense.

"Shut up and fight!" he snarled and charged her again, a kunai in his mouth and his claws ready to shred into flesh.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saiyuki was sitting cross legged on the rock in the middle of the clearing, watching as Kiba struggled to try and get up. He coughed and hacked from the many blows she'd managed to land to his torso all the while his vision was blurring from the force she had put behind each and every attack. She flipped her hair out of her amber eyes, their pupils back to their normal state while her pet Saito was sitting atop of Akamaru and mocking the poor dog by swatting at one of his ears.

"Just give up," Saiyuki said with a bored yawn, stretching out her back. She watched as Kiba came to his hands and knees, his eyes set defiantly on her and his fingers digging into the soft earth under him. The poor clearing had seen better days, there were massive craters and large areas where there were practically tunnels dug into the ground from the dog shinobi's attacks, not to mention there was maybe one blade of grass left throughout the entire area, trees splintered everywhere, and even some blood sprays here and there, some of them actually being from Saiyuki. But for every blow he'd managed to land she bestowed unto him five or six more, she'd really lost count after a while, so while she was bleeding lightly and bruised here and there, he was struggling merely to stand.

"I don't give up!" Kiba snarled, coming to a wobbly standing.

Saiyuki laughed at that, coming to a standing on the rock and crossing her arms over her chest with an amused look. "Stubborn, just like a dog, though I suppose it's fitting since you stink like one," she shrugged and he snarled at her.

"Would you stop saying I stink!?"

"Why should I, do you want me to lie?" Saiyuki sneered at him, putting her hands on her hips and tossing one of the long wrapped up braids over her shoulder. Kiba bristled with anger but his body wasn't up for giving out another rage filled attack, he wasn't able to do much of anything right now. She was right, she'd won, but that didn't mean that he had to concede to it! "How about this, you quit now and I promise I won't tell all the other jounin about this," she said with a grin, her eyes sparking at the promise of his misfortune.

Kiba snarled again, his body wavering while his mind was starting to go blank. He was close to passing out, he could feel it in the way that his entire body was tingling and the way that his eyes were currently refusing to focus on anything in particular, even the mocking girl was a mere red and tanned blur with some light brown atop of it. "I don't quit!" he snapped then fell back as blackness took over him, thinking quickly just how much he hated this girl for being able to best him.

Sai blinked then shook her head and heaved a gigantic sigh. Glancing over to her cat she noted that the dog was passed out now as well, and both were in need of attention from a medic nin, preferably the one that Tsunade-baa-chan was training herself. That girl, Sakura she thought her name was, worked wonders whenever Saiyuki came in with extensive injuries, she could certainly help this weakling. The cat kunochi padded over to the passed out boy, her eyes narrowed and her tanned skin randomly littered with the wounds he'd managed to inflict.

"Looks like we're gonna have to take them to the infirmary," Sai said with a groan, her eyes rolling and her shoulders hunching in dismay. Saito gave out a sort of grunt of disapproval, his eyes fixing on his master while she kneeled down to Kiba's height. He watched as she sniffed then winced and gagged, waving the air around the boy then finally deciding it was useless. She slowly picked him up, using her heavily trained muscles to lift him as if he were a feather.

"Geez, you'd think after what, the fourteenth punch to the stomach he'd give in! This dude is just way too stubborn for his own good, nyah Saito?" Saiyuki asked behind herself, watching out of the corner of her amber eye to see Saito hauling the heavy form of the full grown dog unto his back. Saito grunted his disapproval of this plan again, hating to be reduced to a common beast of burden, and walked after his master who was padding off with the passed out dog shinobi in her arms.

She glanced down at him, her eyes narrowing and her nose wrinkling in distaste. He needs a bath, badly, and not just because of the dog smell! "Kami, when is the last time this guy bathed???" she yelped, the smell becoming overwhelming rather quickly. The sleeping Kiba twitched slightly at her yelp but didn't stir, too buys mending his body in his slumber.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What on earth did you do to Kiba-kun!?" Sakura yelled, fretting over the form of the brown haired chuunin sprawled out on one of the spar cots in the hospital. Saiyuki winced, rubbing her ear at the incredibly loud sounds that the girl could produce, and crossed her arms deftly over her chest. She hadn't done anything wrong! Why the hell was she getting yelled at!?

Saiyuki watched as Sakura pulled up her hospital uniform sleeves, shaking her head as she started to heal the injured boy under her. He was in bad shape… okay so maybe she did over do it a little bit, but he'd started it! He was the one that had been insulting her pride when that was one of the only things she really had left in this world. Not her fault that the boy didn't give up either! She had given him plenty of chances to back off, had he taken them though? No, so then why should she be blamed for something as trivial as this?

"He's the one that challenged me," Saiyuki said with a shrug, her red shirt shifting to where her chin was hidden in the large turtle neck. The fifteen year old kunochi glared at the sixteen year old Taijutsu master, her green eyes flaring.

"You didn't have to beat him up so bad! I mean, Kami, it's called self control!" Sakura yelled at her, her chakra still merging into Kiba's and healing the large abrasion on his stomach from hitting into a rock hard.

"He should have controlled himself and given in when I let him! I told him around ten times to give up," Saiyuki snapped right back, her fangs clicking together in agitation. "Listen, just heal him up, I don't care what happens after that! Though, if he challenges me again I might just have to send him back with broken limbs next time," she stated with a bristle along her spine, her eyes narrowing at Sakura. The pink haired medic nin stared at her as if she had just hit the girl and watched as Saiyuki settled against the wall, glaring at Kiba's passed out form.

Kiba was sprawled out on the cot, his face covered in dirt and bruises while the dried up trail of blood was being cleaned away by the medics skillful fingers. Tsunade's training hadn't gone to waste on this one, she thought with a bit of a grin. Then Saiyuki's latest fight with the Hokage came crashing down on her and she winced, shaking her head furiously. She didn't want to remember that, she was scary when she wanted to be. Something about the way that her voice seemed to boom louder and bigger than her boobs made the cat want to cringe and run away when she was angered.

Sakura huffed something then exited the room, shuffling along and leaving the two alone. Saiyuki scowled, her eyes continuing to bore down onto the slumbering chuunin before her all the while thinking of the things she'd snap at him when he woke up. She didn't know why he irked her, or why she was even here waiting for him to wake up, but there was just something about him that was screaming to the cat kunochi that she needed to stick around. She stared at his tanned face, his messy parted brown hair, and the large red markings under his eyes. She wondered what they were for. Were they a symbol of his clan? And if so, then what did they symbolize? Was it painful when they did it, like hers had been?

Saiyuki's fingers idly went to the space between her shoulder blades to where her clan mark had been placed when she was four. She could remember that night painfully well, could recall the sounds of her own screams, of staring into her parents eyes with confusion and then screaming all over again then the needle met with her skin once more. Yes. She remembered that day. But oddly enough, she had been told that her mark would be there from the time she was old enough to remember, had even had sketches of what it would be present there from when she was two and on. So it wasn't the much of a surprise that she had a constant reminder of who she was, it was just now that she was so painfully alone with practically only Saito for company that it started to hurt her. She scowled, staring down at the dog and taking another deft sniff, her senses tuning in on all that was him. She could smell the others, his family, the other dogs, he had family, he had a clan, he had all that she wanted so desperately but currently…

She snarled to herself, looking abruptly away, trying to block out the painful memories. No, this wasn't right; she shouldn't be envious, right? I mean, there were people like Naruto, who had been raised with no one at all, so who was she to obsess and brood over something this trivial. She turned her back to the boy that was the same age as her, her hands coming to the cool glass, gazing down at all the smiling faces and all of the happy times that were happening below her. She didn't have it so bad, when she really thought about it, so she shouldn't brood this way, right? Right. With a curt nod at herself she slid open the window and sat down on the seal with a sigh, resting her head against the solid surface.

She didn't like thinking this much. She usually saved that for rainy days when there was nothing to do, not days that she had a plethora of options open and she just happened to be watching over someone she'd beaten the crap out of. Why was she here again? Was it guilt? Yes, that sounded right, it wasn't that she was worried that she'd done real harm, not at all, because she knew the cut off limit for the amount of pressure to hit someone with and not break bones. So then what was she guilty about? Beating him up in the first place when he was so obviously under her in skill? Again, that sounded right, but it didn't touch on the odd gnawing that was taking place in the pit of her stomach. She had let anger cloud her judgment, something she wasn't used to, she had let emotion over ride her, again, something she wasn't used to or known for, so then was that was getting to her? She felt guilty because she should have controlled herself better and just knocked him out earlier on instead of beating on him until he was senseless?

She hated it when the voice inside of her gut was right. She also hated it when the breeze brought with it the horrible stench of the ramen hut when someone had ordered the cheapest shrimp ramen that they had. The one that smelled like fart. She winced and curled her nose, staring out into the deep azure sky with a wavering gaze.

When the hell was the weakling going to wake up? She had things to do, people to meet with, places to go and get the mundane things of being a jounin over with. As if on queue a deep groan of pain entered into her awareness and her head shot around, her eyes resting upon the form of Kiba. He groaned again, bringing a hand up to his head and fluttering his eyes open, his lips pulling apart to reveal gritted teeth and fangs.

Saiyuki shifted slightly, feeling slightly awkward for being there when he woke up when she had been the one to inflict the injuries that had sent him. She scowled and looked out the window, her arms crossing defiantly over her chest and waiting for the coming barrage of insults from the foul tempered inu.

Kiba woke with a pounding headache, his limbs feeling like throbbing lead. His mouth opened up, letting out another groan of the agony that felt like it was resonating within ever single fiber of his body. His mind began to wrap around what happened while his eyelids slowly slid open, blinding him with the white light and cursed walls of the hospital. He'd been sparring, or rather fighting tooth and nail, with that girl who had been too much for him. He was weak compared to her, she was just so powerful, and whenever he had tried to land a punch she would dodge, she was just too fast and strong for him to take on. And yet when he thought of admitting defeat to that girl, arrogant and smug like the damn cat that her eyes resembled, he couldn't help but feel defiance bubbling in his stomach and forcing him to refuse that fate. He'd beat her! He'd die before he'd admit she won!

"Ow… fuck," Kiba muttered, shaking his head, trying to clear his fuzzy vision. The white of the room was jarring to his eyes who had been seeking shelter under the darkness of his lids. A clawed hand came to his head, his eyes closing tightly when the pounding began to reach a crescendo. The dog nin easily felt like he had been through a good few rounds with Hyuuga Neji, and the way that his body was throbbing and how his chest was currently searing with many different bruises that promised to last, he admitted grudgingly that he should probably lay off training for a few days.

"Finally awake, Dog Breath?" a familiar drawl asked, the voice thick with sarcasm and contempt. Kiba groaned again, only this time for exasperation, and turned his head to where he could glare at the direction the voice had been coming from.

After a few blinks of his eyes his vision cleared, leaving him to stare at the imposing from of Saiyuki sitting on the window seal, her hair floating around her sun scorched face and her mouth held in a tight, disapproving scowl. She uttered something quickly under her breath, something he knew, just knew, was along the lines of him being weak and stupid, and crossed her strong arms over her chest. "What are you doing here?" Kiba demanded, the searing in his body seeming to rage even more in the presence of the one that had caused its injury. He really didn't want to talk to the girl right now, much less when he'd been humbled into submission.

Saiyuki hissed at him lowly, her fangs clicking together in agitation at his insulting her. "I brought you here, dumb ass, the least you could do is to thank me. Geez, fine, next time I'll just leave you in the field and not worry about your injuries," she spat at him, her eyes narrowing and her nose wrinkling up in a snarl.

Kiba growled warningly at her, his own eyes, fatigued as they were, narrowing to the point of slits while his battered body refused to move to back up his silent threat. He snorted, "yea, and you're the one that gave me these! Why the fuck should you care anyway??" he snapped right back, his hands gripping into fists.

Sai puffed up her chest in indignation, her body now tingling with that familiar rage that had filled her during their fight in the field. She liked this boy better when he was knocked out! "Because I don't need a fellow nin's death from my home village on my record when I could have stopped it! Do you know the lag time behind missions when you've allowed something like that? You don't get a mission for weeks, maybe months!" she yelled, crossing her arms deftly over her chest again, resisting the urge to pounce on him and rip him to shreds. He was annoying her beyond all words and she was starting to ponder the reason of not just killing him and brushing off her missions anyway. She could use a vacation.

Kiba scoffed, resting his head back on the pillow that was surprisingly soft for an infirmary one. He closed his aching eyes, waving her off with an annoyed hand, "whatever, just leave me the hell alone! I don't need to see someone that thinks that they won just because I passed out!"

Saiyuki spat at him, standing straight up and tensing her shoulders to the point of pain. "You're infuriating!! How can anyone stand to be around you for more than two seconds!! Fine! If we ever fight again I'm just going to leave you out in the fields and let the vultures take you!!" she practically screamed at him. She shook her head and jumped out of the window with grace becoming of her rank, landing on a tree branch and dashing off down the road in a rage filled rancor. She needed something to pound on, and right now the training areas were calling her name!

Kiba watched her leave with a scowl, his eyebrows knitting together in distaste. What the hell had been her problem? Not like he had done anything that bad, he'd just told the truth. She didn't win just because he passed out, he could have taken her down just as soon as he'd opened his eyes! He growled under his breath, uttering a colorful array of words, and then slipped his arm over his eyes to protect them from the damn white room that was trying to make his headache worse. Why did hospitals always paint the rooms white!? Why not a color he could stand, like beige, that was much more neutral and less blinding then this radiating evil color!

Just as he was slipping back down into the confines of sleep the door slid open and the familiar chakra force of Sakura hit his senses. That and her very distinctive scent of strawberries, he could swear that the girl bathed in them.

"Kiba-kun, you're awake! That's good, I thought for a while you'd be passed out cold all night!" Sakura beamed and began to wrap some of Kiba's more substantial wounds in gauze, humming happily. He stared at her out of the corner of his eye from under his arm, growling under his breath that he was fine, that he didn't even need to be here. But the pain in his body that thought sent through him told him otherwise, quite otherwise.

Sakura suddenly stopped, not hearing the familiar, even, powerful breaths of a certain cat nin and glanced around the white room with raised eyebrows. She pursed her lips in annoyance, putting a hand on her hip. "Huh, where's Saiyuki-chan? She was supposed to stay so that I could treat that nasty cut on her face!" Sakura said with a slight growl of her own. "That girl, I swear, she'll be the death of herself, always pushing so damn hard! You'd think that she had something to prove!!" Sakura was suddenly yelling at the open window, thinking that the cat kunochi was still in the vicinity even though Kiba had soundly angered her away from his side.

Kiba grunted, "she left, bitch, she was being annoying so I told her to leave," he concluded and was met with a fist on the top of his head. "OW! Shit, Sakura, why'd you do that!?" Kiba asked sharply, rubbing his head and glaring up at her with surprised eyes.

Sakura glowered at him, putting both of her hands on her hips and fighting off the distinct urge to whap him again like she'd done to Naruto so many times before. "You idiot! Do you know how rare it is that she even comes here!? Great, now I'm going to have to track her down and do it myself!" Sakura said with a great sigh, tearing off some gauze and pressing it to his cheek where he'd suffered a large bruise followed by a gash when she had scratched him soundly. "Don't know what you were thinking though, Kiba-kun, Saiyuki is one of the most forefront Taijutsu masters in the village, she could have hurt you a lot worse than this!"

"Sakura, please!" Kiba snapped loudly, not wanting to hear that she had held back considerably in their battle. So she was stronger than that? Then how the hell was he supposed to beat her to get her back for this little stint in the demon room? He groaned and tossed his head back, despair setting in for his latest failure, a failure that stung all the worse considering who had handed it to him. "She held back!? Great, fuck, damn it, shit!" he let out another plethora of swear words and slammed his palm to his forehead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saiyuki was on her way to the training fields with her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her dark blue pants, her eyes narrowed and rage filled. Who the hell did he think he was!? So damn cocky when he didn't have the skill to back it up! At least she was stronger than him, she had all the right to gloat, and she hadn't even gotten that far by the time he had enraged her! Would he have preferred for her to leave him out there all on his own!? It was starting to sound appealing for the next time they fought. And yes, she could tell just by the way that he had been glaring at her and the way his horrible scent had shifted from one emotion to the next, there would be another fight. Only this time it was a question of whether she'd be nice like she was this time or if she would beat the shit out of him like she was feeling like doing right now!

Saiyuki was so consumed in her rage that she didn't notice that her feet had stopped hitting against the dirt of the roads of Konoha and was now padding in the soft grass of the outdoor training areas. She blinked when she almost ran into a tree, her amber eyes widening with realization then vexation. She had been brooding again! She didn't brood, at least not this much, this boy needed to be thrusted from her life as quickly as he'd come.

Saiyuki opened up the front of her red shirt, revealing the black tank and mesh under tank underneath, and began to take off her gloves. She was just starting to bind up her arms and legs, wrapping the black bandages around with a quick and skillful hand, her eyes set and determined on the large log before her painted with a bull's-eye. There was nothing that was going to get in the way of her venting her frustrations, when she was like this she was a danger to anyone and everyone, and that included Saito, which might explain why the panther had headed home after dropping off Akamaru in the hospital along with his owner. She could easily snap someone in half when she was being this volatile, and just about every jounin in the village knew to steer clear of her like this.

Saiyuki stood, rolling her head around on her shoulders and stretching out her muscled arms, her mouth pulling into a snarl of preparation. The boy, Kiba's, head seemed to materialize on the log, and while Saiyuki was busy pulling her sandal boots back on she imagined doing all the things she held back on in their fight to this log. Though that meant that they would need a new log after the first six or seven kicks…

Blood. The scent hit her so hard and so fast that she winced and rolled to the side from her crouched position, holding her nose firmly while glancing around. It was pungent, harsh, like it was more than just one person or thing bleeding, like it had been countless, bodies brimming in something, drenching that something, though she couldn't place what it was. She glanced around, her body suddenly thrumming with excitement, her mind racing and her eyes slitting sharply down into their angular position. She panted anxiously, unsure of what was happening. Her head was swimming in the thick odor, her mind was racing, and her body wanted suddenly to run as far and as fast from the training grounds as she possibly could. There was a silence that was too thick around her, there was not a single animal sound, and considering that Konoha was a village in the middle of a massive forest that was a bad sign.

"What the fuck…?" she muttered under her breath, feeling the very ground under her seem to shiver in the approach of what was carrying the scent of blood. This wasn't right. Her every fiber was screaming for her to run, she could feel all of her hairs standing on end and her chest was starting to freeze painfully halfway through pants. She stood slowly, still having her muscles locked up defensively, glancing around in preparation, and yet there was nothing there, nothing except that overwhelming scent. Just as Saiyuki was ready to bolt, her fangs sharpening and her hands balling into nervous fists, something rustling to her left caught her attention.

Her head shot around, darting her eyes over to where the rustling had come from, and stared at the forest with narrowed yet wide eyes. The scent was becoming too much for her, and there was a sudden new thrumming in the earth, a new challenge, a new threat. She took a small step back, digging a kunai out of her holster and placing it between her fangs to stop their clattering that was clouding up her heightened hearing. Just as her heart was pounding so hard she thought it would burst something began to melt from the forest where the rustling was coming from.

Saiyuki tensed, ready to fight or flight, her chest heaving in primal fear of this creature. As the figure continued to trickle out of the forest slowly details of him became visible, and several things were starting to stand out. For one, the guy was incredibly pale, much lighter than her own skin tone, and then there was the reddish brown hair that was in a messy mop atop of the pale head. Saiyuki was suddenly frozen on the spot, her amber eyes meeting up with the sky blue eyes that were set in a deep ring of darkness that surrounded the orbs, making him look like raccoon, but the look in those eyes was the worst thing that she'd ever felt.

The guy continued to meld from the forest, his body covered in a dark red cloak like jacket with a dark grey sash around his chest and back, carrying with him a large almost gourd looking thing on his back. He wore black pants that reached down to his black sandals, but it was those eyes that were still locked on hers, still sizing her up, that were making her feel the dread that she'd never felt before. Her entire form was awash in ice cold almost terror, her mouth pulling back into a defiant snarl even though her mind, her instincts were screaming at her to run like the rest of the animals had.

"Hey, Gaara, where'd you go??" a loud males voice shouted from behind the red haired man that was still staring at her. Saiyuki didn't dare look away, her mouth opening and closing but still coming to rest in that twitching snarl, her hands clenching tightly, her kunai long since dropped from her lips.

Her body reacted before her mind, she was cornered, she was pinned, she could tell just by the way that this guy was staring at her. She snarled, snapping at him peevishly and was in the air before she could really catch up to her own actions, her strong leg swinging around and moving to strike him upside the head, her instincts of self-preservation settling in and making her blind with stabbing fear. Gaara watched her movements with a close eye then just as he shin would have met with his face, obviously putting much of her own personal power behind it, his sand rose up from the ground.

Saiyuki gave out a small yell of surprise when her leg shattered through a wall of sand, her eyes widening then narrowing, the slits of her eyes going to almost pinprick width as she landed and span around, bringing both of her legs spinning around only to be met with the wall again. She broke through it easily enough, shattering it with her power and causing it to swirl around her legs threateningly, but it was that whenever she landed the next blow that she was met with the damn sand once more. She back flipped away when the sand made a grab for her, the owner of this jutsu staring at her with those damn eyes while her heart began to flutter painfully in her chest. She hissed lowly, her hair flying around her face in ragged clumps and her amber eyes glowing in anger and fear, like a cornered animals.

It was just as Saiyuki had attempted another kick, then punching deftly at the wall with a clawed hand, that Gaara's sibling's had tracked down their brothers traveling pattern and entered into the training grounds of Konoha. They had been on a diplomacy mission; they were to discuss more peace treaties with Konoha and the Cloud village that afternoon and were running late thanks to their brothers randomly deciding that he wanted to go for a stroll. It hadn't been until his sand clone had begun to dissolve before their very eyes that they had even noticed that it wasn't him. And now they were walking on this, some crazy chick that was using Taijutsu to try to break through Gaara's sand shields, hissing and spitting like a cat.

Temari sighed, shaking her blond head and watched as the girl was repelled again by Gaara's defense, her back slamming into the ground while the red head seemed entranced by what was going on before him. "Great, we're not with him for five minutes and here he is beating up some poor girl," she said with an undeniable smirk, watching as Saiyuki came to a crouching, her two long bindings of hair flowing around her at the sudden movement.

"Yea, great, we're going to have to explain to Tsunade-sama why she has yet another dead fighter on her hands…" Kankuro complained, running a hand over his black covered head. His panted face observed as this girl narrowly avoided a grab from Gaara's sand, her speed obviously much greater than most kunochi or even shinobi of her age, but only to cry out when a blade of sand suddenly flew by her during an attempted dodge of the sand and cut into her arm.

Saiyuki stumbled back, her eyes narrowing and her chest heaving from fatigue. No one had ever been able to hold off her attacks like this, she was using her full power and now she was paying dearly for it. Her body was exhausted on the point of crumpling before this guy, her attacks weren't having any effect against his shield, and those little sand blades he was now prepping up again had a nasty bite to them. And yet, through it all, he kept staring at her, unnervingly, to where she winced and snarled at him, taking a step back nervously. The sea of yellow and dirt suddenly shot at her from all directions, making the girl hiss and try to back up, her heart thrumming deep in her throat.

"Fuck!" she swore and tried to jump out of the way, dodging the first wave with failing grace, flipping back and trying to land on her feet only to land in a puddle of grains. She yelped, trying to pull her feet free, staring down in anger laced horror, then gagged when the sea of sand hit her square in the chest and rushed her against a tree. She coughed up blood, adding to the stench of the sand that was now making her head start to throb in time to her racing heart, and gasped for air, her body completely immobile.

Gaara seemed to sneer, his eyes narrowing at her and his sand dancing around his form almost excitedly. Saiyuki heaved a breath, trying to calm down her erratic and hectic breathing, only to succeed in sucking in a mouth full of sand. She hacked and coughed, arching her back against the strength this earth possessed but was repined with a sternness that had her chest feeling it would be crushed. She stared at him defiantly, her fangs falling over her lower lip while the sand rushed back, gripping her in a hand like gesture, and suddenly slammed her down onto the ground, causing her to grunt in pain.

"Gaara! Geez, tone it down! We're in Konoha for peace talks, if you kill this chick then wave peace with the Leaf village good bye!" Kankuro suddenly yelled, watching as the sand slammed the girl down again, causing her body to twist.

Saiyuki gagged once again, coughing up red onto the ground, fighting one arm free and gripping to the ground with strong claws, clawing at the earth with fear in her eyes. This wasn't how it was supposed to end! She didn't want to die! She practically roared at the next hit, feeling something in her leg break harshly, and fought her other arm free of the vice, wrenching it from the death grip harshly, causing red to run down her wounds and gripped and clawed at the ground, trying to pull herself free.

A loud growl filled the air and then suddenly a rush of ebony and shinning muscle rushed by her, the glint of a Konoha headband glaring into her eyes. Saiyuki blinked then span her head around, pinned to the ground under the mass of sand, and watched in horror as her best friend, her only real friend, charged at Gaara, enraged at what he was doing to his master. "SAITO!!!" she bellowed, clawing at the ground with renewed vigor.

Saito jumped into the air, his claws glittering in the afternoon light, his fangs barred and loud hisses emitting from his throat. Gaara turned to the beast with a bored look, rising a hand from under his arm and instantly sand shot forward at the animal. He could hear the girls screaming, could feel her shaking with terror and rage as she watched her cat slammed into the ground like a rag doll then picked up and thrown against a tree. Saiyuki released another cry, her body pulsing with her dark red chakra, her eyes starting to bleed from gold into a gold flecked green like her jungle cats, her body now pulsing with anger and adrenaline endorsed power.

"Leave him ALONE!!" Saiyuki bellowed. Gaara shot a look at her, his eyes narrowing then widening slightly when he noted the sand was starting to surge up and away from her body, that her limbs were suddenly endorsed with such strength that she was parting the firm earth. He growled, not liking the idea of his prey getting away, and gripped harder onto her, all the while slowly crushing the cats lungs before the girl.

"Saito! Saito!? Saito!!!" Saiyuki bellowed when the cat didn't answer back, didn't do anything but yowl in pain, his claws trying to pierce at anything within reach.

"Gaara, back off!" Temari cried, alarmed at this rather aggressive show. Gaara hadn't been this way in a while, hadn't shown this side to him in a long while, just wanting to protect people, but it seemed as if something in this girl made him enter into old ways. The sixteen year old ignored his sisters cries, watching in silent amusement as the girl continued to struggle, to fight, all the while his sand bestowing to her wounds and bruises, being thrown into trees, the ground, even once into her own cat.

Then, to all of their surprise, when he was starting to wrap the panther up, his midnight black fur dipping under the sand and his cries being muffled, the girl seemed to snap. The sand suddenly shot from her body as chakra flooded from her in waves, her eyes glowing a pure amber, the slit so small that it was almost invisible. She dashed forwards, coming to the ailing panthers side then swung her leg and fist down at the same time, shattering the sands hold over her ally. Gaara's eyes narrowed in annoyance, wondering how she had managed such a feet, and took a step forwards, his hands falling to his side.

Saiyuki snarled, bringing up kunai in each finger, her body beaten and battered, blood running from her lip and arms, everything feeling like it was on fire. But one glance back at the broken panther, her friend, her only family, forced her to pay attention again, her fangs gnashing threateningly, her wild instincts taking over. _Protect. Protect a member of the pack, the pride; protect Saito with your life! _

Gaara watched her with discerning eyes, watched as she crouched over the panther, her eyes narrowed and a feral look in those amber eyes. "Why? It's just an animal," he said in a deep voice that rang into Saiyuki's ears painfully.

She winced then put her kunai closer to her chest, sliding back a step closer to her fallen comrade. He'd gotten hurt protecting her. She'd been cocky from her fight with Kiba, she hadn't been thinking, she had let emotion override her judgment, so many things had gone wrong with this battle, but she wouldn't let one of them be the loss of her best friend's life. "Because, he is precious to me! Saito is the most important thing in my life…" she hissed. Gaara frowned, his eyes narrowing at this statement. He'd heard that many times now, from Gai when he was protecting his student from the sand demon vessel, from Naruto when he was protecting the girl Sakura, and now this?

He scowled again and struck the girl with his sand, sending her sliding across the ground, her back being torn up from the fall and her head hitting the dirt hard. Gaara watched with a narrowed look then started to walk off, deciding to let the kunochi leave with her shame of defeat, not even waiting for his siblings to catch up to him. She was arrogant, very from the way that she had just attacked him like that, she had to be taught. All he had done was to show her that there were stronger people out there, he had broken her of her pride, and taught her humility before someone like him. Humility, after all he had learned, was a trait that we learned.


	4. Chapter 4 Taijutsu

**Chapter four: **

**Taijutsu is a message **

**Of the soul**

**Oh! And I changed my mind. The Gaara thing is not gonna work out, lol, well it would have, it woulda made a kick ass story, buuuuut Shino would just make the story more along my style and just over all better. So Shino's gonna be it, cause, yea, I can do that, I'm the author. Gaara still gonna be in it though, lol, I'm not done with him yet. **

Saiyuki groaned as she tightened the splint around her arm, her eyes watering when she snapped her broken arm back into place. She couldn't remember when she'd actually broken it in her fight with the red haired demon boy that had been called Gaara; all that she knew was that he was insane! Who did that to someone? She hadn't even beaten Kiba up that bad, and here this Gaara guy had almost killed her and Saito!

Speaking of… she glanced wearily to the injured cat that was in the corner of the room, laying down on a small mattress with his legs held from his body, wrapped in almost as many bandages at his owner. She scowled to see him in this condition, her eyes narrowing and her tongue running over her fangs in agitation. If she ever got the chance she'd bite that Gaara kid, hard, to where it sank into his bones! No one did this to her Saito, to her partner, to her only living link to her past! His strong, black body, once rippled with muscles and pure power, was huddled up, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth while his eyes were held in that horrible closed position that told volumes of the pain he was going through. She'd given him some pain killers to help with the torture but it didn't seem to be helping, it also didn't help that they shared a link on some levels and felt what the other was feeling, so to add to her own broken limbs and tears of skin she was feeling the constant throb of his wounds, of his battle. She hated it. She wanted to make it stop for the big cat, but as she sat on the ground, her ankles crossed in front of her hand her neck craned forward, amber eyes glowing dully in the dark of the house, she knew that there was nothing she could do in this condition.

She swore loudly, punching the ground and causing a small fissure to run along the wood, her eyes narrowing in disgust of her inabilities. She was so weak, too weak; she wasn't supposed to be like this! She had her ass handed to her by some red headed freak of a Sand, no matter how badly they were aligned with Konoha that was no excuse to lose to something she was supposed to be able to beat down easily. She had trained against wind shinobi all of her life, she had trained against all of the elements, but he hadn't used any hand seals, the sand moved without the slightest sign from him, and it had hardened to a rock within seconds of coming off of him! How was that possible??

Saiyuki snarled again then plopped back onto the ground, glaring up at the ceiling with a narrowed look. She wouldn't be able to train properly for a good few days, not until her broken arm was semi knit back together, and she could only heal it up with her own chakra so much. So she would have to sit around, take a sick leave, and then wait until her battered body was ready to work again, to train. She wouldn't let that snot get away with what he'd done! She'd get her revenge it was the last thing she did! Though, as she winced when a twinge settled down her arm and to her fingers, tingling there then passing with a throbbing torture, she sighed, if she fought that kid again when she wasn't in top shape then it would be the last thing she did.

He had beaten her, badly, she had been slammed into the ground like a helpless kitten while crying out like some newbie genin that didn't know any better. She was a jounin, she was powerful, she was the second best Taijutsu master next to Gai himself, and here she was, almost immobile in her home after being humbled by some snot nosed red headed guy that had just randomly decided to beat on her. Okay, so maybe that was a lie.

"I did attack him first, so I guess he had the right to defend himself, but that was just fucking excessive!" she snapped to herself and rolled over on her unwrapped side, her torso bare for all but the medical wrappings around her chest and stomach, one even looping around her shoulder where it held an ice pack in place. She couldn't remember the last time she had been beaten, much less that badly, not since her chuunin days when she was dispatched on a mission that should have been an A-rank. Saito muttered at her in agreement, his eyes sliding open and staring at her through the dark for a few seconds before falling back into a fitful sleep that always came with pounding wounds and minds.

She attacked first. Saiyuki scowled and glared at the ground next to her eye, studying the flecks of dust and nails that were adorning it. It wasn't like her. She didn't attack randomly, she never did that kind of thing, it just wasn't in her, she was calm, she was cool, she was collected, she wasn't brash or unthinking like she'd been today. It was as if the fear had lead her, had told her, had made every muscle move of it's will and not hers. It drove her crazy to think that someone had that affect on her, but his smell, his presence, his over all fear, she would admit, had fucking scared the shit out of her. She didn't even have to see his skill that now had her on the cold ground of her home to know that he was strong, monstrously strong, she hadn't even had to see him to know how powerful he was. If only she had listened, if only her body hadn't frozen up and she had listened to her mind screeching at her to run. But she was too prideful, too arrogant, too strong willed to have listened to it, and her body responded to her cry not to appear weak. She had appeared weak either way, hardly any match for that guy, and had only caused herself unneeded harm.

"Baka nekko," she muttered to herself then glanced at Saito. She remembered the cold fear running through her that had seized up every muscle, even her heart, when she had seen Saito running at Gaara. Only to be smashed down into the ground with a loud crack and a cry from the large black cat who's only thought had been her safety. It was her fault that he was in this shape. He was part of her pride, part of the family, he would have protected her with his life, and that Gaara guy would have gladly taken it. Saiyuki heaved up to a pained standing and shuffled over to her family member, crouching down then laying down next to him, draping an arm around his chest and nuzzling her face into the brunt of his strong black neck. "No one's allowed to take you…" she murmured on the edges of sleep and fell down into the darkness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"_Saiyuki, come here, honey," a voice called out in the dark. Saiyuki's head popped up from it slung position, standing before something polished and hard on the ground. She looked over, her feet lingering on the soft brown earth, and stared with slightly wide amber eyes. There, in the dark, was the form of the people she was here mourning, their faces smiling and their arms held out for her. She shook her head, her short brown hair flying around her face in disbelief while her fangs bit into her lower lip harshly, drawing out blood. _

"_You're… its impossible…" she muttered and felt tears starting to streak down her face. She shook her head sharply, swearing many colorful words and dropped down to a crouch, hissing and spitting while trying to stop the pounding in her mind. _

_Hands were now clasping to her shoulders, shaking her gently, urging her to look up. When she did, they were still over there, yards away, and yet there were no hands, there was no presence on her, and she was left staring in horror and relief mixing together in a paralyzing combination. This wasn't right… and yet she felt so wonderful, they were back! She stood on shaky legs that should have been strong from years of training and took a step forwards, her eyes now releasing tidal waves of the salty liquid down her face, rushing down and dropping onto the soft brown earth. _

"_Come here…" they breathed again, their arms outwards, stretching for her, wanting her. She shook now, her eyes wide and her voice catching in her throat, not wanting to believe and yet screaming for her to run. She did, she followed the screaming and took off full speed, her tears flying behind her and her sun scorched hands reaching out desperately, yelping their names, sobs coming out from her throat in cracking tsunami's. The arms stretched out and took her to the chests of the two, holding her firmly there, all the while the graveyard slowly began to go black, leaving only the sobbing kunochi in the arms of those that should be within the ground. _

"_Darling Saiyuki…" the woman whispered and ran a hand down her cheek, rubbing off the tears with a tender touch, soothing the sobbing, soothing the burning. Amber met amber and she let out another cry, burying her face into the chest of the male, clinging to both with strong arms, never wanting to let go. She felt like a child in their shadow, felt like she was nothing, and yet she felt too grown up, so grown up that it was painful, and she felt like she was everything. She was encompassed, she was peaceful, she was at home, and yet, their arms were becoming cold, their touches were lacking emotion now, and their voices were fading from her. _

"_No… no! Don't leave me again!!" Saiyuki screamed and fell to her knees when their forms disappeared from her all together, leaving her to the dark, to the night that was now grasping at her with spiny, sinewy fingers, holding her down while she reached out in vain. She called out again and again, wanting, needing, tears burning so badly down her face that she thought that she would surely be injured, all the while being pulled back into the dark away from where her long lost family had been. "Please! I NEED YOU!!!" she sobbed out before being pinned to ground. _

_Saiyuki tried to cut at the hands, tried to pry them away, tried to get free, but the more she struggled the harder they held on to her. She cried out in vain, trying to thrash around, trying to be with her parents again who's warmth was no replaced by the slick, sickly feeling of the Dark, wanting her, wrapping around her, craving her. Sand suddenly surrounded her and when she let out a startled cry it invaded her mouth. It crushed against her, holding her down, pressing, hurting! She arched her back in vain, feeling bones starting to snap and watching with dying eyes as those horrible teal colored ones appeared before her, watching her death mercilessly. _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba walked down the market place with his hands shoved into his pockets and a bag of groceries hanging off of one of his arms. He was being sent off on a food run by his mother who apparently didn't have the time to get the damn stuff herself, so he was left with grunt work, again! He snarled to himself, his mind rumbling over the way she'd said it angrily. His mother acted like he was there to do house work sometimes! It aggravated him that she was so… weird!! He stopped and took a quick sniff of the air, assessing the bakery shop and seeing if they were selling anything that would be good. Smelling nothing of real interest he snorted and continued on his way.

The market was always packed at this time of day, filled with ninja and nonin alike, all of whom were here for one purpose. To shop. He didn't see the allure of shopping, it just aggravated him, especially if you were just window shopping. What was the point of coming out here anyway, getting dressed in good clothes, if only to stare at something, look at the price, sit there a few seconds debating whether or not to buy it, then move on and forget about it? Didn't you shop to buy things? Wasn't that the whole point of it?? Kiba glared at the passer bys with a small growl, watching as they bustled around with arms filled with either clothing or food, chatting happily, looking into the displays and pointing things out to one another. During this time it was girl central down here, chattering, happily, about some random shit that really didn't interest him in the slightest. Usually he would at least look at them, he would at least admire some of the views, he was sixteen after all, but today he was in a sour mood.

His fight from yesterday was still painfully real in his body. He was bandaged up on one arm and around his chest, but that was it; Sakura had managed to heal the rest this morning before he left for his house where he'd been given his latest mission of food retrieval. Kiba remembered the fight now with clarity, too much for his tastes, how she had practically been mocking him. She was fast, much faster than he had been, and her blows had such force behind them that he could honestly say that she didn't have any human strength that he knew of. Maybe she had that weird chakra skill that Tsunade and Sakura had… and if that was the case then he was lucky to be alive. But that also meant that she'd held back considerably in their battle, and that made his wounds throb with an injured pride.

The inu ninja snarled to himself, scaring a child that had been walking close to him and causing the child to huddle next to his mother while he stormed around mindlessly. He didn't really know where he was going now, he knew that the last alleyway he should have taken for then it would have led him straight back to his house and to his pack, back to even Akamaru who had been so banged up from that damned panther he was bed ridden. If he never saw that cat girl it would be too soon! Kiba grumbled, kicking a rock down the packed dirt, passing now the Ramen Hut that had Naruto sitting at the bar and eating his portion rather loudly.

Kiba stopped and looked inside, staring at the back of the blond headed boy as he talked idly with his sensei. He stopped, staring with wide eyes that he was back in the village, much less at the ramen shop when he should be making his rounds of greeting to everyone. He felt himself bristle in his already sour mood, his eyes narrowing and his nose pulling into a snarl. This was unlike him, he knew, to brood on something this bad, to become this agitated, but he couldn't help it! Every move he was making made his body throb, made his injuries cry out in revolt, and that only reminded him more clearly how he'd gotten them. By a cat! By someone as cocky and arrogant as that damn girl, what had he name been, Saiyuki??

Before Kiba knew it his feet had lead him to the park, where there was a long wall stretching along the outside of it, and where trees littered the ground thickly. There were jungle gyms everywhere and there were monkey bars, even some training grounds for the younger kids, and he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widening slightly. The last time he'd been here had been with… he fought off a blush rushing to his cheeks and jumped onto the wall, sitting in the shade of the tree that stretched up behind it, then began to watch the kids that were rushing around idly, his hand coming up to support his bored chin. Just because he was out getting the food didn't mean that he would bring it straight back…

He watched them play and frolic, almost envying them right now for their carefree spirits. He watched with almost a numb look on his face, not noticing that as he watched, as he observed their movements, how they jumped from bar to bar, climbing trees, chasing after one another, that the sky was slowly starting to bleed into a sunset red that was staining even the clouds with red. He frowned when one of the kids fell down and scrapped his knee, feeling like he should go over there and help, his internal reaction to helping kids taking over. Sometimes it didn't pay to practically be part dog. One of these days his instinct to protect little kids might be used against him…

"So, this is what you do with your free time? No wonder you're so weak," Kiba tensed and let out a hiss between clenched teeth, his hands gripping into his pants. He turned with a glower, his eyes flaming with anger and rage that she dared to show her face here, to him, when he was still recovering from the wounds she'd given him. There she sat, crouched down on a tree branch and looking at him with raised eyebrows and a gaze of almost contempt in her gaze.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Kiba snapped, his eyes narrowing to the point of slits.

Saiyuki shrugged her shoulders, wincing inwardly when that sent a surge of pain down her spine, and returned her gaze back to the kids that were playing around in the park, her gaze softening almost instantly. "I was bored; do I need a reason to come to the park? You just happened to be in my spot," Saiyuki snapped with a peevish tone.

In reality this wasn't that much of a lie. She had been bored, but she hadn't really wanted to come to the park. She'd been out for a walk, just watching the sky and the people, trying to avoid other jounin as much as possible to avoid unwanted questioning. She had wanted to be out in the air, to stretch her injured muscles that were starting to freeze up in their ill use, she just happened to come across the park when she'd been out and about. And then she'd seen Kiba and decided that she could use some entertainment and came up here to bother him. It was that simple. And yet it was so much more complicated than the because she knew by the way he was narrowing his gaze, inspecting her over slowly, that he was going to ask what happened to her.

"What the hell happened to you?" Kiba asked with a narrow look. He could see just about every bruise on her face, since she didn't use make up like all of the other girls her age, and each and every cut and wrapping up her arms. Yep, she knew that question had been coming. Who the hell could have beaten her up so badly? If he couldn't hardly land a blow on her who the hell had managed to just about pummel the life outta her?

"Not everyone is as weak as you, ran into some guy and bit off more than I could chew," Saiyuki said with a casual shrug then winced at the surge of pain that it send down her spine.

Kiba blinked at this, sitting up straight and regarding her like she was crazy. He had to know who did that! Maybe they could train him so that he could beat her up in the same way for revenge for his current aching wounds. To see her equally as in pain as him made a small part of his pride swell up happily that she too was in agony and that she knew what it was like now. He laughed at her, a barking laugh that hurt the cat's ears, and her amber eyes flashed down at him with a snarl on her face, indignant rage all over her face.

"Geez, I'd like to know who did it to you, maybe they can give me some pointers!" Kiba said with a shaking laugh, not noticing the way that her shoulders were starting to hunch and her fangs were clicking together in a quiet warning.

"You're an ass hole you know that?!" Saiyuki snapped and turned to watching the kids, her jaw jutted out and her hands clenching into the bark of the tree. Kiba smirked at having been able to get under her skin, someone as prideful as this chick must not like to be beaten at anything. Note to self to use that for later, Kiba thought with a smug smirk on his face. Saiyuki sighed, shaking her head and stretching out her arms almost languidly, her face, already tanned and bronzed by her natural skin tone, was set a fire by the setting sun. "Some dude with red hair, I think the guys he was traveling with called him Gaara or something."

Kiba tensed and turned to her with a wide eyed look, his entire body washed over in fear. She'd run into Gaara? How the hell was she still alive if she had done that!? She should be dead and her blood should be joined with his other victims in soaking his sand for the rest of the red haired kids unnatural life! He gaped at her as Saiyuki ran a hand down the splint on her right arm, staring at it with bitterness, her amber eyes slitting for a brief moment. Why had Gaara spared her life?

"Meh, his names not that important really, all I know was the guy was fucking strong! I couldn't get in a single punch or kick! This damn like sand wall always came up whenever I tried and it was hard as a rock most of the time too! It was if it moved of its own free will away from him, because I didn't see him perform any hand signs or jutsu's whatsoever. But that wasn't even the most disturbing part," Saiyuki mused aloud to her captivated listener, his mouth slightly agape. She shivered, recalling that cold, almost lifeless gaze with a chill of fear sounding over her entire body. "His eyes were the worst part… his eyes were so distant, so merciless, they almost appeared soulless, they were so empty. I saw my death in those eyes, and he would have killed me, I know it, had Saito not come in…"

"You're panther thing right?" Kiba asked in a slightly hushed tone, not liking the idea that it had to be Gaara that had beaten her. There was no way that he could get any words out of that kid, much less escape without harm like Saiyuki, so he was back to square one. But now the way that Saiyuki was biting her lower lip, her eyes narrowing and her entire body tensing with the thoughts of her panther, he began to wonder if she was a close to the animal as he was with Akamaru.

"Yea, my panther thing, he got pretty banged up, I might have to take him to the vet," she muttered almost weakly in that usually loud and slightly boisterous tone. She shook her head firmly, her eyes now set down on the ground and refusing to look at anything lest she start freaking out.

Kiba nodded slightly grimly, knowing that now wasn't the time to make fun of her or to do anything really stupid. Though he would like to, there was no doubt about that, right now he would like nothing more than to make fun of her for her wounds and for losing to someone right after she'd just beat him halfway to hell, but he didn't think that was appropriate right now. He knew it wasn't. He knew that if anything ever happened to Akamaru and then someone made a wrong move near him then he would not hesitate to tear their throats out with his bare fangs.

Saiyuki, growing bored and tired of this stifling silence, shifted and turned to Kiba with a discerning look and her eyes narrowed. "You need to work on your Taijutsu, badly," she stated matter of factly to him.

Kiba bristled, his fangs gritting at her insulting his skill and glared at her icily. Where the hell did she get off telling him what to do? Last he checked she wasn't Kurenai or anyone even close enough to give him pointers on his form or areas that needed improvement! She was just some chick that happened to catch him off guard a few times, okay a few twenty some odd times, and beat him. He would have won eventually! "Who the hell do you think you are!?" Kiba demanded, standing from his crouch so that he could stare right into her face, trying to force all of his personality on her at once.

Saiyuki just stared at him like he was a puppy that was growling and barking, acting fierce and vicious when he was really only teething. She smirked at him, her eyes glittering at the challenge that the boy was silently issuing. Had her body not been battered this badly she would have gladly accepted that challenge and would have just as gladly beat him into the ground. She was angered by her lose to some foreign male that had come into her territory and dared to defeat her, frustrated that she'd lost, and almost a little sad that she had been powerless to stop what had happened to Saito. If he wanted her to wail on him then she'd be honored that he would so willingly be her human meat bag for her own personal angers. But her body wasn't in better condition, it was in horrible condition quiet frankly, and she felt that if she got into a fight or even trained too hard over the next few days that she might need to go to the medic nin's. That was not going to happen. Saiyuki was almost as afraid of the medic's as her fellow jounin Kakashi and refused to go anywhere near their lair of white and evil scents of disinfectants.

She shrugged off Kiba's hurled, rather lame, comment and leaned back on her branch away from him. "Your breath is worse than your actual scent! Do you brush with bacon flavored toothpaste or something?" the cat shinobi asked with a wrinkled nose of distaste, swatting at the air.

Kiba blinked in confusion then was swinging a fist at her in a heart beat, his pride haven taken one too many jabs from her. Saiyuki scoffed at this and caught his fist with a sure hand, though one considerably weaker than normal it was still much stronger than Kiba's own given that her abilities had her chakra behind them, his evidently did not. "Why the hell do you keep insulting me?" he bellowed at her hotly, ripping his hand from hers and looking at it as if she had burned him.

Saiyuki mock mused her response, running a hand over her chin in thought while batting around the different ways to anger him. He was easy to read, it was very easy to tell what he would get mad about, and it only helped that she seemed to make his very hair on his hair bristle with anger at her. It entertained the kunochi to no end to see him in such a huff. "Because I can?" she offered up with a cat like grin, her eyes turning up into crescents and her shoulders coming up by her ears. She flipped off of the tree just as he would have punched her again and landed with a graceful thud, looking up at him with a disapproving stare. "You know, you're really slow too…"

"What did you just say!?" Kiba demanded sharply. He'd been called many things in his life but slow was not one of them! He prided himself on his speed and if she was going to call him slow then she was in for another fucking fight!

"Geez, dumb and deaf, how lame can you get, dobe," Saiyuki said while flicking her hair binding over her shoulder, smirking when she heard him snarl at her for daring to say that. Kiba was seeing red now, he was in a tunnel of bright red blood and all that he could see was the girl standing under the tree and cleaning out her claws almost leisurely, looking as if he was not threat what so ever!! He hissed and came crashing down into the ground, his fist hitting the soft earth under the tree. Wait… what? "Poor aim to boot, man, how did you ever become a chuunin?" she asked with a tired tone, sitting down on a rock no more than a yard away from him.

Kiba snorted, clenching his fists tightly until the skin called out in pain under his fingernails, blood starting to drip from the crevices. "Would you hold still for once!? You're such a coward!" Saiyuki's ears pricked at his yowled comment, his eyes flashing in rancor of her teasing and his entire body rigid and on the verge of combusting from the tension.

"You did not just call me a coward…" Saiyuki hissed as she came to a standing, her arms limp by her side and her eyes now narrowed and icy looking. Kiba started slightly, gulping down the painful lump at the back of his throat while staring down what could possibly the most pissed off kunochi he's ever seen. Top those off with a kunochi that could and has kicked his ass before and her eyes seemed to be trying to set him on fire, and then he was screwed…

"So what if I did?" Kiba asked with a snap, taking a small sliding step back, his hands coming to his kunai pouch, putting down the groceries with a wavering hand. He should run, he really should, and even injured he could tell that this chick was a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately for Kiba though, he wasn't exactly one for listening to his instincts and wasn't exactly the most intelligent of his group.

"You are so going down now, dog!" Saiyuki snarled and charged him, her broken leg completely ignored and her hand swinging back to land a punch. Kiba stared wide eyed like a deer in the headlights for a second, his heart pounding in his throat and his mind screaming at his body to move, to jump, to get out of the way! He moved just in time for her fist crashed into the ground and shook it harshly, forcing a crater to form into the earth sharply. Kiba skidded back, scrapping into the ground and starred at the cat as she came to a standing, her eyes narrowed harshly and her entire body tensed.

She was going to charge him again, to make him pay for calling her a coward, when she sighed and felt the throbbing in her arm from hitting the ground at that kind of force. She shook her hand, not having her bindings on and having small welts forming on the skin. "You're lucky that I need to recover, dobe," Saiyuki snapped and turned on her heel, walking away with an angry sway in her hips.

Kiba let out a held in breath when Saiyuki walked off, sinking down to a crouch and watching her with intent eyes incase she decided that he had been too big of an ass to just let off the hook. He felt relief that she wasn't going to fight him, because then it meant that he didn't have to worry about opening up wounds that Sakura had healed up and would probably kill him if he got them injured again. He glanced to his groceries with a slight scowl, wondering what he'd ever done to deserve some crazy chick to not only beat him but feel like some puppy compared to her Taijutsu abilities.

He glanced into the bag nonchalantly and stared down at the milk and bread that was in it. Now… the question was to go home and risk having to explain to his mother why he was so late, because now the milk had probably gone bad, or to walk around some more and risk running into that girl again. He'd take his chances with bad milk and his mother than with Saiyuki, she had blood lust in her eyes when she had punched where he'd been standing, he may be a little dense but he certainly wasn't about to start prodding at a sleeping tiger with a sharp stick. Kiba stood in a sweeping motion, gathering up the bag with one hand, and was off in a jump onto the nearest roof in a few seconds flat. The only question was… what excuse could he possibly use?

Saiyuki grumbled as she walked down the darkened streets of Konoha, ignoring the spinning and fuzziness in her body and mind for doing such an advanced Taijutsu when she was in such horrible shape. She could make it home, no problem, but if only her head would stop feeling like there was a midget in it pounding on the insides with a hammer then she'd be fine. Her fist felt like she'd slammed it into a brick wall and her arm was tingling in pain, meaning that she'd have to reset the damn bone when she got back to her house. More to look forwards too.

She stopped and stared up at the night sky that was still stained in the distance by red and gold, the rest being taken over by a dark navy blue. The stars were starting to come out in droves, lighting up the skies of Konohagakure with bright pinpricks of hope. Saiyuki's eyes darkened at that thought, her mouth coming into a firm line while thinking back on the coming week. It was this week… all during this week that… they'd left.

She winced and shook her head sharply, crouching down slightly and putting a hand to her now spinning head, the entire world bucking under her feet. The sound of kunai's clashing, the sight of fire, the scent of blood. No! She shook her head sharply, trying to will away the images while feeling a burning and stinging at the back of her throat. Saiyuki growled lowly, putting a hand on the ground and glancing up towards the end of the long road she was on, where there was a turn that led to her house, where Saito was waiting. But the pricking in her body wouldn't stop, the cold washing down it and the spinning, numbing of her head was taking over, even her eyes were starting to glaze over.

She couldn't pass out, not here. She brought herself to a firm standing, her hands clenched hard while she tried a first step. Her foot met with spinning ground but she'd yet to fall so she took another, aware now by the hot, sticky feeling on her side that there was a wound there that had opened up and was oozing red into her already red shirt. Damn dog… she thought bitterly, picturing Kiba's smirking face. He was the one that egged me on, I shouldn't have attacked, I shouldn't' have done it, and yet he seems to bring out the worst in me! I got these wounds because of him, yea, that's right! He was the one that got me cocky, riled up, ready for another battle and ready for something to vent on! That coupled with my fear of when I ran into that Gaara guy added up to me getting my ass kicked and almost getting Saito killed. Yea, it was Kiba's fault; it was all Kiba's fault.

"Are you all right?" a soft but deep voice asked.

Saiyuki glanced up with uncomprehending eyes, her fangs falling over her lower lip and her face starting to run with sweat. There, at the end of the road, stood a guy no older than her, with spiky brown hair, a long almost trench coat like grey jacket that covered the lower part of his face, and his eyes were shielded by a pair of dark sunglasses that formed almost completely around his eyes. The dying sun's rays lit his dark hair on fire, making it look as if it had red in its depths, and his coat seemed to shuffle in the slight breeze that was prominent in the village at this time of year. She swore under her breath, reaching out a hand as she felt her knees buckle and scraped at the wall next to her. This was so stupid. So very stupid… she thought bitterly while staring at the guy who had stopped to stare at her.

"You're bleeding," was all he said and she let out a bitter smirk, her eyes narrowing and seeming to glow in the dying light of the day.

"No… shit…" she hissed in pain, gripping to her side. "I can handle it…" she lied, her body feeling like it was going to slump down any second now.

Shino narrowed his eyes from behind his glasses, a frown gracing his features. He walked towards her with sure feet, watching as she glared at him and looked perfectly like a wounded and cornered animal. He reached out a hand to help her up but she swatted it away impatiently. The Aubrame watched as she tried to come to standing on her own, clawing up the side of the building and making halfway before her eyes clouded over and she fell forwards with a frustrated grunt. Before she hit the ground she felt something hard against her face and strong arms wrapping firmly around her back to keep her stable. She realized that's she wasn't going to make it home by herself and finally just gave up the struggle, letting the dizziness and shaking of her body to take control.

"You shouldn't stand, you've lost a lot of blood," was all that the mysterious guy said to her before she blacked out, her hands coming limply by her side. Shino glanced down at the sun scorched skin and light brown hair in contemplation then turned down to the road she'd just been walking down that had blood following from where she'd been walking for a good ten yards. He shook his head at her obvious stubbornness and glanced around for any place he should take her, not knowing where she lived, he decided on the only real place that could treat her wounds. The Hospital. He picked her up around the back and knees and carried her off quickly, not wanting to waste time.


	5. Chapter 5 The cat and the Bug

**Sorry this is so late. This is a hard story to write ya know, then when it was done I was having techincal difficulties, damn computer, lol, and damn for doing it and grrrness. Anyway, here you go! And yea, expect angst cause that's how I roll. **

**Chapter five: **

**The Bug and the Cat**

"**You're not afraid?"**

The world was spinning so, so very fast. The place where her limbs were supposed to be had been replaced with lead and there was a searing in her side that couldn't' be stopped no matter how she moaned and tried to heal it with her own chakra. She wasn't in the alleyway anymore, she could tell that much, and she wasn't alone in the room, she could also sense that much, but beyond that it was a blur of smells and sounds that were making her so dizzy that she felt she was going to be sick. There was only one place that had ever had this kind of effect on her, and because of this she almost wished that she was still in the realms of unconsciousness and not just verging on waking up.

Saiyuki groaned again, straining to move only to find that she couldn't, that her form was surprisingly too weak to support any kind of action. She tried to sniff the air to get her bearings only to wince at the pungent stench of disinfectant and cleaning solutions that they liked to put on wounds. Yes… it was official, the cat nin thought bitterly, the boy that had saved her before had brought her to the hospital. Maybe she should have told him of her severe disdain for this place before she passed out…

She winced as her eyes started to slide open, the only part of her body that was seeming to have any function what so ever at the moment, and light hit her sensitive amber eyes in full force. Her eyebrows knit together in agitation, the bright white lights the bane of her existence while she felt hands suddenly coming to her side and pressing into the wound there. When she let out a warning hiss a small chuckle filled her ears, the familiar chuckle of a certain chuunin girl with bright pink hair that was almost as fiercely as the damn lights above her.

"Saiyuki-chan, you really need to be more careful when it comes to wounds! I mean, geez, from what Shino said you were bleeding all over the place he found you at!"

The cat nin hissed again in anger and pain as Sakura said this uncommonly loud. She thought for sure that sometimes the pink haired kunochi did things just to get on her nerves sometimes, and this was one of them. She was a trained medic nin, she should know that when you wake up from passing out you tended to have a bad headache and were incredibly weak! "Good to… uh, hear you, Sakura," Saiyuki said in a feeble voice. Saiyuki had to blink a few times until her vision was clear enough to see anything, and when it was all she was met with was the blindingly bright florescent lights that just so happened to be positioned right above her head.

There was a second shifting and when Saiyuki winced open her eyes, glaring at the ceiling with slit and angered eyes, she was met with an eyeful of pink and green. "You did a horrible job patching these up too. Geez, what made you think to wrap a wound this bad in just ACE and gauze?" Sakura scolded the prone girl who was staring at her in disdain.

Saiyuki found it in her to move her hand and bring it to her pounding temples, trying to stave off the screeching noise that Sakura's voice was making. On any other occasion she found Sakura to be a pleasant person, down right enjoyable at other times, but when the kunochi had just woken from wounds and was surrounded by scents and sights that made her cringe in unbearable agony she found that she downright hated the pink haired other. Then again right now she hated anything within a good mile radius of her, and if that happened to include a certain red haired sand nin or a stupid dog boy then so be it. She let out a small sigh of distress, blinking a few times to clear the fog that her world had been shoved into, and slowly started to move her gaze around from the form of her nurse and friend.

The room was standard enough, she supposed, with two other cots in the room housing others in worse off condition than her. White decked the walls in insanely shimmering hue and the bright blue tiled floors didn't help the sensitive sight of the kunochi. She felt something in the depths of her skin and when Saiyuki glanced over to her arm she noted that she had an IV deep in the skin and it was pumping in fluids and antibiotics into her. Most of her body was covered in bandages or some form of coverage that was keeping the wounds closed and sealed off from the air of the world. More likely than not they had decided that her wounds weren't noteworthy enough for a healer nin, most likely no one had put their chakra into her, and in a way Saiyuki was grateful. She hated that feeling more than anything else, it made her feel like someone else was in her body, that they could see and feel everything that was her, and that was the most uncomfortable feeling in the world. Not to mention that her specialized chakra needed at least another week to recuperate from someone else intruding and melding into hers. Being a Taijutsu master could sometimes be a real bitch…

Saiyuki's eyes swept over the many instruments that they kept in the rooms of the outpatients and the ones that weren't going to have medic nin treatments. Blood pressure gauges, trays of materials, a little bin of hazardous material, and what was worse was there was a bottle of cleanser in the corner with the flowers that had been sent to the other patients. Great… she thought with a distasteful wrinkle of her nose. Then her senses locked onto a familiar presence and her gaze snapped sharply over to the person that was sitting rather politely in a chair beside her.

"Anyway, you're lucky that Shino found you, otherwise this time you might have ended up in a body bag. What were you thinking walking around with injuries this grievous? You should have come in the second you got them!" All of Sakura's words went in one ear and out the other as she continued to stare at this man that was acutely staring right back. Saiyuki could feel the weight of his stare, could feel the heaviness that it wrought, and the seriousness that rolled from his body. His scent was pleasant… she thought with a slight frown. It was thick and yet subtle, it was dark and almost brooding laced thick with what she could only describe as the forest and a nutty presence. Nothing was really breaking through to Saiyuki as she continued to stare this man down, through his sunglasses while her body was somehow lulled into a relaxed state around him. Nothing that was until Sakura walked from the room and closed the door with a firm click.

"You're awake," was all that this man said as he shifted and slid his hands from his pockets to rest onto his knees.

Sai blinked slowly, unsure of what to make of his obvious dissertation. Of course she was awake, otherwise he wouldn't' be talking to her. "Yea," was all that she said in return.

Shino regarded this girl with a slightly analytical gaze. Even in her prone and almost helpless state on her hospital bed he could tell that she was powerful. The way that her amber eyes were sparking and almost flaring under his own gaze and the way that her bright almost blond brown hair shifted against her bronzed skin somehow told of her own movements. She was pure power, he could tell simply by looking at her arms through the wrappings that adorned her figure, and with those fierce eyes that were boring into his through his shielding sunglasses.

"Yea, I kinda am," Saiyuki muttered out, feeling embarrassed and humbled by how she had met this guy. He had found her drenched and blood and on the verge of bleeding out rather painfully. Not a good way to form a first impression, he must think she was a total weakling unable to handle herself or even get herself to a good hospital.

Shino analyzed the girls statement slowly, his eyes narrowing in thought by a small margin. He wasn't one to make swift judgments, he'd had that done to him his entire life, but he could tell just by looking at this girl that she was extremely reserved and private when it came to anything to do with herself. That might be why she was dancing around this topic, he thought with a critical glance to her and his mouth conforming into a tight line. A normal person would have told him thank you, or would have told him what caused the injuries by now, that was how most shinobi and human beings operated. Obviously she wasn't normal… Now he just had to discover if that was a good thing or not.

Saiyuki watched in distrust as Shino shifted around again, his eyes never leaving hers through the dark tint of his glasses. She couldn't make out the color of his eyes because of the glasses, but she could tell that they were intense and verging on demanding, could tell that if she were to ever see them that they were probably eyes she would be forced to never forget. That thought alone sent involuntary shivers down her spine. What was it about this guy that was making her like this? It wasn't right, she thought with a snarl, her eyes narrowing dangerously and her fangs falling over her lip in an intimidating gesture. "Well?" she asked with a scathing tone, her body tensing from breaking the almost smoldering silence.

Shino let out a small breath of air from her shattering the silence he'd been using to gauge her. If one thing could be said about Aubrame Shino it was that he was good at judging character and noting someone's personality just from how they acted when there was an awkward silence. He was quiet for a reason, and it wasn't just because he was also fiercely private and withdrawn, it was for watching, waiting, learning, and then striking if the need ever arose. It was what made him the ninja he was today, the powerful shinobi male that could take down just about anyone given enough time to study them. He noticed how Saiyuki was now averting her gaze from his and staring up at the ceiling, tired of waiting for his response, and was closing those salient ocher eyes.

"Well what?" Shino asked carefully, making sure his tone was even and soft like it always was. He could tell that his would be an interesting little dance from the way that she seemed to turn rigid from his question after hers.

Saiyuki, tiring of keeping up his little staring game, looked away after a while. Her head was pounding as if the kid with the sand was still crushing her in its vice and her side was burning with such a vigor she could swear that it was about to explode! This is why she didn't like the hospital, it seemed that whenever she came here her wounds started feeling worse!

Saiyuki smirked at his question, her hand coming to her forehead to try to quail the pain. It wasn't working and that alone was going to make her irritable, but throw atop of that the little cat and mouse game he was starting with answering her question with one of his own and she was just about to start tearing out tufts of her own hair. "Aren't you going to ask?" she pondered at him, trying to avoid bringing up the subject herself. She didn't think she could bring up that she lost to some guy that nearly killed her to a total stranger. Her pride wouldn't' let her, no matter how humbled and bruised it was from that particular fight.

Shino gauged her reaction carefully. This might prove to be entertaining, he thought slowly and started to come up with his own response. If he asked outright then in a way he could tell he'd be conceding defeat and allowing her to take the lead of the conversation, however short it would be with the two of them because of his inability to hold one and her inability to talk about herself.

"Would you answer?" he came up with it out of thin air and that in and of itself surprised him. For some reason it was almost relatively easy to talk to this girl, well, easier, he was still socially inept in several categories.

Saiyuki opened her eyes through her fingers and stared at the ceiling with slightly confused orbs. She cautiously bit her lower lip, chewing on it and trying to think of way about this. However, coming up with a response that was as challenging as his was draining her weak body and she could feel fatigue gripping her and dragging her back down into sleeps arms. She hated being injured, it was just an excuse for her body to be lazy in her opinion.

"Probably," she said with a wave of her free hand, the one that wasn't shielding her from the lights above her that were trying to give her headache a new status of migraine.

Shino mentally cocked his head to the side. This was interesting indeed, he was glad he had stayed. Now he got to learn what had made her go into such a state… He moved for the final time in his chair, resting his back a bit and allowing himself to get comfortable, not planning on leaving anytime soon. It was just common curtsey not to leave someone that was injured alone in a hospital much less when you were the one that brought them there.

Saiyuki could feel his questioning stare, could feel him prodding at her to continue silently, never uttering a word to even let go of his pondering. She bit back a small smirk at that, thinking that he was wholly different from most of the guys she had ever met. "I got into a fight and lost, that simple," she muttered under her breath, hoping that he couldn't catch it. She didn't' like it that she had lost to someone, even more so when it was someone like that Gaara, it just hurt to think about that fight. Where were morphine drips when you really needed them?

Shino mentally frowned, keeping his mask of calm on his face. There was more to the story, there had to be, and he could tell that there was. There was turmoil on her face, or rather, those eyes that were currently still staring at the tiled ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing in the entire room. She had lost and she was humiliated, he processed slowly, and then swept his eyes down her form again. She was strong, cut, and defined, she was most likely used to never losing because of that, and from the simple way that her body was moving he could tell that she specialized in Taijutsu. The wonders of knowing someone like Gai and Lee… he thought with a small smile. Taijutsu specialists moved different than other shinobi and kunochi. It was something that he had silently observed many times now. The taijustu masters were fluid in their movements, confident, and over all quicker than most others, they were almost graceful because each and every movement counted to the utmost. Whereas normal shinobi weren't as graceful, weren't as calculating with their motions, though he wasn't saying that normal shinobi that deal in ninjutsu or genjutsu weren't physically strong, it was just that the taijutsu users were in a class of their own.

No… whoever had beaten her had been in a rank all his own. Whoever had beaten her was something else entirely, Shino concluded. He didn't even have to see this Saiyuki girl in battle to know that she would be awe inspiring to watch. "I see," was all that Shino stated and moved to stand up. She obviously didn't trust him, not that it mattered that much to the Aubrame, he'd had plenty of people distrust him simply for what he was and what family name he carried.

Saiyuki was almost mildly startled that he was getting up to leave. She shot him a look of slight shock, her eyes lightly wide and her mouth parted in a silent question. Why was he leaving? She didn't know why she didn't want him to leave, by all means he should, she shouldn't care if he was here or not, but she… she didn't want to be alone again.

Before Shino made it to the door he heard a shifting of fabric and the disturbance on the bed of someone sitting up. He didn't look over at her; he just kept staring at the window in the door that lead into the hall, waiting silently for her to purge whatever was on her mind. He could feel those piercing eyes on his back, her chakra almost pushing at his while he analyzed.

Saiyuki sat up with a grunt, her entire form burning and throbbing from her wounds and from her shattered pride. She stared down at the sheets that were puddle around her knees, and while her hands clenched and unclenched her honey brown hair fell before one eye, all the while her gaze never left Shino's back. She bit her lower lip in thought, her brows furrowing in thought, then in resignation. She let out a small sigh and lowered her eyes down to the sheets once more, her hands now limp atop of her knees. "Thank you," she murmured, trying to push passed the arrogance that was raging in her. She was Haraku Saiyuki, she didn't need anyone's help therefore she didn't need to thank anyone! But… Shino had brought her here when he hadn't had to, he had been kind to her, had stayed by her when she was unconscious, and had made sure she was okay. In a small way she was so grateful she couldn't think straight, but she could never say that… would never say that.

Shino nodded curtly, never taking his eyes off of the door, and exited the room with a silent step. He was gone just as quietly as he had come, even as he had brought her into the hospital he had been quiet, saying only the most essential things that would help the injured kunochi he had escorted. He glanced down to his jacket, which he had shielded with a small genjutsu that was in reality drenched with the amount of blood she had shed during his hurried flight to none other than Sakura. He looked down at it with a mixture of emotionless interest and slight concern, wondering vaguely if he should press the matter of her fight any further.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_A ten year old girl sat in the middle of a large clearing with her brown hair floating before her face. Her amber eyes stared out at the swaying grass under her while her mouth opened in awe of what she was surrounded by. It was so perfect and beautiful, so outstanding and utterly simplistic… she could drift away on the wind and become one with this setting if she was allowed. _

_She closed her eyes and fell back with a plop onto the emerald blades, letting out a long breath of air that came and drifted on the winds of time that were caressing her form. One could almost forget oneself if one were allowed, she thought with a small smile on her lips, running her fingers over the standing plants. They responded to her touch with a shivering, then returned back to the sway and current of the breeze that was continuously coming through the clearing. It was a fantastic day and yet… _

_Saiyuki opened her eyes slowly, her teeth clamping down into her lower lip. She heard a throaty growl enter into her ears and turned her head in the grass, bending her body slightly to stare at the hulking form that had been with her since birth. Saito… in all of his dark and powerful glory stood watch at the end of the clearing, his tail swishing back and forth while his eyes kept vigil on her, trained to stay within a good smart distance. He had been there, through thick and thin he'd been there, and here he was again, keeping a positive look on her, making sure no harm came to her while he was around. In a way he was her father, in a way she supposed he had always been… he was a substitute for the real thing she supposed but he fit the bill marvelously. She sat up slowly, her shoulder length hair floating around and her fingers now holding chunks of grass that she had pulled from the soft earth. _

_Saito grumbled at her again as he sauntered his way over, his large pads hitting against the ground silently while his form stood out starkly in the green of the area. He came to a thud next to her, his head coming to rest in the crook of her neck comfortingly all the while his eyes were slowly closing. The heat of the day was making the cat sink down to a laying down next to his partner and pride member. The only sound in the entire expanse of the area was the deep purring coming from the large animal all the while Saiyuki continued to stare at the clouds with a narrow look. _

"_How long has it been, Saito?" Saiyuki pondered to the cat just as it came to a hard lying position, his head propped up in her lap. He opened up one eye, his headband glinting around his neck and his teeth monetarily flashing at her. "It doesn't seem like it's been that extensive…" she murmured, her hands coming to her knees. "Is it supposed to hurt this long afterwards?" _

_How many years had it been? She'd been in so many homes since then, been with so many different people, but all of them left her or abandoned her. Now she was in the care of the Hokage, living in a home by herself, her old house, with such painful memories, and the state paid for all of her expenses. She idly ran a finger down Saito's blunt head, her mouth coming into a firm line while tears were burning at the edges of her eyes. It wasn't right… she thought almost bitterly, her entire form starting to shake. Why did they have to go? Why couldn't they stay like so many of the other kids parents? Why wouldn't anyone come near her, acknowledge her, say something, anything? They had all turned their back to her the instant that she was left alone like this, in that two story empty house, so painfully alone that every time she even set foot in there her heart ached with a pain that equaled only her own depression. _

_Saito growled lowly and pushed his forehead to hers, purring deeply and fixing her with that deep stare, his young panther body taught and shivering at the motion. Saiyuki had to repress the urge to sob, to break down again, so all she did was allow her lower lip to quiver and let the tears roll down her face silently. There would be no more sobbing, she thought almost bitterly and held onto Saito's neck fiercely, holding him close for comfort. He was her only link, he was her only living link to that past, that time, and she wouldn't ever let him go, no matter what the costs! The panther sighed deeply and pressed back against the ten year old genin who was already showing promise in her classes. _

Saiyuki scowled as she stood on the roof of the hospital, her loose bandages fluttering around while her amber eyes stared out at the city of Konoha and the memory of that day playing over and over in her mind. The city that she had vowed to protect until her dying breath, that this was her home, and that she had a fierce and undying loyalty to this homeland of her clan. But… ever since that horrible day since that incident she had received a bad reputation, she was associated with fighting, with pain, and with being a delinquent. No one knew the pain she went through silently, no one ever would, for no one ever took time out of their busy lives to ask, to wonder, to question, no one but Tsunade. And even then it had lead her to no where so why bother?

The nekko slowly slid her body down to a sitting on the ledge, her ribs crying out in agony but more or less her body was healed up from Sakura and some other medic nin finally convincing her to accept their chakra or she'd take months to fully recover. The last thing she wanted was for her body to go languid and soft with lack of training.

She had received such a bad rep because of when she was younger. She had been teased, been insulted, her eyes were the main topic but there were several other things as well. Her eyes, an unnatural and spectacular shade of gold that could pierce through the dark and would slit when she was angered or scared, had been one of the main reasons she'd been pelted with stones and other things by other kids when she was young. They had called her a cat, that she wasn't a human, that she was a freak and shouldn't be allowed to be in the school. Then there was her skin, an almost bronze color that was rare in Konoha and only showed up on the likes of the Haraku or Umino, other than that the dark color was almost extinct. Then… there was the fact that she was a taijutsu master. She had always been picked on, called a boy, that she shouldn't be in the girls classes that she should be with the boys, and when she was they had shunned her and called her an idiot, that she wasn't a match for them.

So she'd applied herself. She'd become the strongest she could, hardening up and becoming a fierce and loyal fighter for Konohagakure and answering only to those that showed her the right amount of respect. She had gotten near perfect scores in everything in her school days, her taijutsu the best of her class and her chakra control outstanding for someone of her age. And yet there was still the constant underlying disrespect, the murmur, the name calling, the insinuation. One was that she was a lesbian.

Saiyuki snorted at remembering that rumor and put her chin in her hand, staring at the glittering glass of the city with a dulled look. If she was such a lesbian then why did she actually like some men on the jounin squad. There was Genma, but he was far too old, sadly, but she could not deny that the man was very good looking for a complete and total slacker and a rather large lecher. Then there was Kakashi, though she didn't think that she could ever get passed the porn that he carried around with him everywhere. He had shown her once and Saiyuki had nearly gotten a concussion from falling on a nearby table. Yes, she was straight, she thought with a small sneer, her eyes flaring, though she doubted that she would ever find someone to be her significant other.

'The life of a shinobi is a stressful one, very rarely can a relationship be sustained in the workings of our jobs. More often then not the partner is constantly gone on a mission, schedules conflict, and more often then not the partners start to wonder about the other, such as, "is he cheating on me when he's away?" They grow distant for they were never really all that close. There have been so many hookups in the jounin level alone that it's dizzying. You can't help but fall for a person that you're fighting back to back with in a life or death situation, but again, very seldom does it work out. Just don't get your hopes up, kid,' Genma had said to her one day when she had been talking with the fellow brunette. She had found in that moment she had agreed with him profusely.

She didn't' have any girlish whims, dreams, ideals, of finding someone to love, have children, and living happily ever after. She had seen the dark of the world at an early age, she would be happy just to survive past thirty. It just wasn't in her to fantasize, because fantasies are just that, they won't ever come true.

Saiyuki stood and jumped down from the roof, ignoring the slightly indignant cries of Sakura who had escorted her up there. She had complained of needing fresh air, that the scents of the hospital had been driving her crazy, and it had been true at the time. Now she just wanted to walk away, and as soon as she hit the ground with a thud, crouching and her bound up columns of hair shifting around and her muscles shivering at the impact, she did just that. She walked from the clinic and started to head out to the house, confident that who she wanted to see should be there by now.

Saito would get yet another scar to add to the many that now littered his body most likely. Saiyuki wouldn't be surprised if he did, from the way that Gaara had thrown him around. At the thought of Gaara Sai bristled and snarled, her eyes narrowing and her entire form tensing to the point of pain. No one hurt Saito that way, if she ever found him she would rip him to pieces or die trying!!

Something however suddenly caught her nose and when her head snapped up she stared in mild shock that he was there. His thick scent wafted around her, forest and nuts settling deep into her nose while that bush of wild brown hair stuck out upon the top of his head. He was just across the street, coming out of the local weapons shop with a new kunai pouch and a bag filled with shuriken. The two locked eyes, or at least Saiyuki assumed that they did for she could feel the heat of his stare through those glasses, and she stared right back defiantly. She straightened up her slight slouch, her hands clenching while her pride suddenly flared angrily.

Shino had been shopping for a good kunai pouch. He had scanned the multitude of rows upon rows, of different styles and types, some with flashy displays an others with different compartments. He didn't understand the purpose of having a loud kunai holder, at least not one with bright red and orange flames that stood out starkly against a black and navy fabric. And he didn't see the reason for having different compartments for all of the kunai when they all went into the holder. Sometimes the weapons shop dealer could be so impractical. Then again… Shino was always one that didn't like change.

He ran his fingers over the uniform one, the standard one that almost all genin got when they graduated as a gift from the school, as well as several Demon Shuriken of the Winds, and more kunai and regular shuriken then he could count. He liked the familiarity of the old ones, the ones that had yet to fail him in battle and served only one real purpose, to hold his knives. Not to stand out against his thigh, not to make a spectacle of itself, and not to make him confused in the heat of battle which compartment he had placed the larger kunai's. Instantly, he knew, it was his, and put it in his hand, moving to carry it over to the counter when something else caught his gaze from behind his dark glasses.

There, sitting against the racks of swords, was a fresh set of the newest shuriken with upgraded blades and reinforced metal. He firmed his mouth behind his jacket collar, his eyes darkening while he walked over to them. His last mission had drained him of his shuriken for he'd come in contact with an enemy hostile and had to kill them, only they had been able to subdue his bugs. So he had relied on his hand to hand, as lacking as it was compared to Lee or the girl he had helped into the hospital it had been more than enough to finish off the hostile enemy. So, more than he would like to admit it was a bit of a whim buy, he got the shuriken and had made his way up to the counter.

He had been sent on a mission by his father from the Aubrame complex to buy a new pouch, since his old one was starting to become ratty and torn. What did it matter if he had been using the same one since he was a genin? It had served him well, and he was anything if not loyal to his things. Shino had bought what he needed and was heading out into the sunset of the day, opening up the door with a small wave back at the weapons dealer. Then his senses instantly locked upon someone grumbling across the street from him and the bugs beneath his skin began to surge. He recognized that hair, that bronzed skin, and that violently red shirt that she wore, not to mention she was the only girl kunochi he knew of that had such well defined arms.

He took note of how the kikai were swarming, were pulsing upon sensing her again, and wondered vaguely why that was happening. It hadn't happened before, and though he was aware that he should just walk away, that he needed to be getting home before his father started to ponder where his son had gone, he couldn't pry his eyes off of the female shinobi. Just as he was trying to tear from her the girl's head shot up and glanced in Shino's direction, her amber eyes glowing in the setting light and her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her pants. He was surprised to see her out of the hospital, from the extensiveness of her injuries he had assumed she would be in for a few more days, then he caught sight of the failing wrappings and the still embedded stitches and knew that she had run from it and not been dismissed.

Shino watched through his glasses as the girl stood up straight then stared defiantly back at him. For some reason there was an electricity in the air, at least that's how it felt to Shino, and he felt small pinpricks forming on his skin.

Saiyuki cursed her luck for running into the guy that had saved her, even though in her mind she thought she could have handled that situation all by herself perfectly well, there had been no need for him to interfere. She shifted slowly, putting more weight onto her left foot and crossing her arms over her chest indifferently.

"Better," Shino observed.

Saiyuki smirked almost gently at the man and nodded slowly. "Yea, though don't let the medic nin's tell you otherwise, they still think I need to be in that stupid place another day or two for observation and removing of stitches," the girl said with a shrug and Shino couldn't help but slightly marvel at her. To bounce back from such staggering wounds was astonishing and worthy of praise in and of itself.

"Good," he acknowledged.

Saiyuki blinked a few times then sniffed the air. She recognized that smell, it had taken her a while the pinpoint it but she knew it well enough. She let a small smirk come to her lips and a hand come to her hip, her eyes narrowing almost calculatingly. "You're an Aubrame right?" she asked almost casually.

Shino tensed though not visibly. Most people were afraid of him because of what he was, because of what he had living within his body, and most people avoided him like the plague. It was why he was so quiet; it was why he didn't like to make a lot of friends. He had been horribly shunned when he was little, to the extent that he had some mild trust issues and often wondered if someone had ulterior motives if they were speaking to him. "Yes," Shino stated slowly, not sure where this was going. His kikai seemed to surge at him saying that, confusing the youth rather soundly and making him arch an eyebrow at the girl.

"Cool, I've worked with one of your family members on a mission before, you're little bugs come in real handy sometimes," Saiyuki said off handedly. She remembered one of her first jounin missions had been a co-op and she had been assigned it with one Aubrame Tatsuki, who had saved her ass quite a few times with his little bugs.

Shino blinked a few times, not giving away his surprise outwardly. She was talking as if she didn't mind his family trait, the fact that he was a walking hive and had millions of chakra sucking beetles under his skin just waiting for battle and listened to his every command without hesitance. She almost seemed like she didn't care… how was that possible? Even Hinata and Kiba had said he was creepy when he was first partnered up with them… and here was this random girl?

"You're not afraid?" he asked cautiously, his voice never faltering though he could swear he could hear more weakness than he was willing to betray.

Saiyuki shrugged and leaned against a building wall, staring at the Aubrame before her with a fixated stare. "Why should I be?"

Shino just stared at her with masked shock and then slowly envy. He nodded curtly to her, his hands coming into his pockets and hiding away his purchases, his breath slightly taken away by her statement.


	6. Chapter 6 This idiot a friend of yours?

**Chapter six:**

"**This idiot a friend of yours?"**

Crunch! A figure flipped back from their crumbling opponent, their long lean body twirling around gracefully with practiced ease. They landed in a crouch, amber eyes flickering darkly to the man that was now sprawled out on the ground and a large amount of blood drizzling from his opened and now death filled mouth. The female figure grunted and moved to the side, pushing off the ground with agility much akin to an animal, just as a large almost scythe like weapon dug itself deep into the ground where she'd been standing only seconds before.

She spun around, chakra spurting from the assailing foot, and kicked hard into the black metal of the obtrusive weapon. It shattered on impact, littering the ground with glittering shards while the man that had wielded it snarled and took a few steps back, his hands now gripping way too many kunai for him to use effectively. The female figure shrugged one shoulder, rolling it around and cracking it back into place from having dislocated it from that narrow dodge all the while the fool that had dared to challenge her was charging, his eyes flaring and his kunai glinting almost menacingly in the light of the day.

Blondish brown hair flew around the females face as she quickly fell onto her back, sweeping her legs around in a whirl of speed and tripping up the man that had come against her. He fell forwards with a horrified look, staring on as clawed hands reached up and thrust with chakra laden power up into his chest. Red fell down from his now open chest cavity and spilled all over the girl beneath him, staining her clothing and the grass that laid around her in thick emerald clumps. The dead was thrown from her with a sound kick to the stomach, sending it flying and through a tree with a defining crack, the very last moan of the man slipping deftly from paling lips. The girl came to a slow and languid standing, moving with calculated grace while the eyes were now sweeping over the final seven that had dared to interrupt her mission, having heard of her presence in the area from a sentry that she had failed to sense. She may have been outnumbered, she thought with a small smirk in her mind, but she was far from out classed.

She threw one of the long bound up braids over her shoulder, her mouth curling into a small sneer that was used to upset her opponents and lure them into a frenzy. A weak frenzy where she could use their weaknesses against them then strike and watch them fall, all the while coming one step closer to her ultimate goal. Getting the mission specks back to the Hokage and leader of Konohagakure.

"Who the hell is this chick?"

"Some kunochi from Konoha! I knew they were gonna come here!"

"Well she can't take all of us at once… start thinking tactically you idiots," one of the leaders whispered and stepped forward. He had a large glaive in his hands, his eyes narrowed upon her and his mouth pulled back in a firm and intense frown. The female shifted slightly, coming into a fighting stance, sliding her foot back while bringing the other forwards, one hand balled into a fist while the other was dropped down downwards towards the ground palm down and open. She didn't like this one, she found. His eyes held an intelligence that told her she would have problems beating him even with her specialty taijutsu.

"Who are you girl?" he asked slowly, shifting off his outer haori and revealing only his fishnet undershirt, showing off muscles that only came with taijutsu training. Intense taijutsu training. Fuck.

The girl however let a smile come to her lips coyly, never leaving her position but letting her dark red chakra start to pulse around her body, it's waves shifting and curling around like that of a cat's muscles. The clan mark on her back, between her shoulder blades, began to burn with the newly released surge and her eyes started to slit even more to where they looked nothing like the human ones of the man staring at her. Yes, she was an animal, she thought slowly and let her fangs snap together menacingly. "Why would you want to know the name of the person you are about to die by?" she wondered vaguely, shifting the hand that had been pointed at the ground with startling speed and shot out a pure ball of chakra, having secretly performed the jutsu single handedly while the man had been distracted by her pulsing power.

He dodged and rolled away, swinging his glaive while doing his own jutsu signs, then the blade of the weapon pulsed white and shot out a bolt of pure lightening that was heading straight for the taijutsu specialist. The brown haired kunochi snarled, unable to dodge in time and threw her hands together in a quick symbol and brought her pulsing fist into the center of the attack, sending the sparks flying off in different directions. One hit one man square in the chest and was sent right threw, splattering a tree behind him with blood and causing him to slump lifelessly into the grass under him. The others all hit around the girl causing massive craters that kicked up clouds of dust.

Saiyuki sneered as she lowered her hand, flying backwards as the leader came at her with his weapon, his movements as fast as her own. She blocked an attack, though taking one clipped in the shoulder from the blade.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Why should I be?" Shino repeated slowly, running a finger over the brim of his glasses. His dark eyes stared through the dark tinted glass and he slowly was chewing on the inside of his lip. It had been a few days since he had seen that girl that had uttered something that shocking, something that the Aubrame had never even thought was possible.

Everyone, even his now very close friends, had at one time been afraid of him or freaked out by him. All because he had the kikaichu under his skin, his family trait and blood line limit. But this new girl, this Saiyuki, hadn't even flinched when he had said he was Aubrame, but had actually called his 'little bugs' useful in battle. She was different, he thought slowly, she was very different.

Shino flicked a blade of grass that had somehow managed to get onto his pants, his eyes now trailing the line of ants he had been silently conversing with for over the last hour. He shifted against the tree he was sitting against, feeling the bark dig into his skin from beneath his long hooded jacket while he began to play with the mask that was pulled up over the bottom half of his face. He had abandoned his other jacket and clothing long ago, but when he had met Saiyuki he had been donning simply because this one had gotten soiled in his fight with an enemy nin the night before. He found himself foolishly thinking of what she might think of this new outfit, of the one that marked him as a chuunin and a powerful member of his clan. He shouldn't be thinking like that, he scolded himself.

Besides, she might just be playing like she wasn't afraid of him. Yes, that was the only reason he could see why she had said something like that and was even talking to him. It might also have been a dare by another jounin for Shino's family was vastly regarded as… creepy. As he thought of all these things, slowly sliding away from the thought that she might actually not be freaked out by what lived under his skin and that she was not indeed different from the rest of the village, something sinking opened up in his chest. He knew this sinking. It was depression, and though he hid it well from everyone, including his close friends Hinata and Kiba, he had suffered from this affliction for a long, long time. How could he not, growing up shunned like he'd been?

Shino squinted behind his glasses, picturing back to his younger days, his brows furrowing. Picturing to when he was just a kid, when he had been playing in the sand box, watching ants walk by with their loads for their respective nests, while children stayed away from him at a minimum of a full yard. They'd whisper about him, thinking that he couldn't hear, saying that it was okay because he had bugs in his ears, or that he would eat them all, or that he had cooties and not to touch him. He had been so horribly alone that it hurt just to think on it. At least now he had Kiba, Hinata, and Kurenai, though he could still see behind their friendly gazes the occasional flicker of disgust, undoubtedly thinking on what lived within him. But what lived within him gave him such awesome power… maybe that's why he was and had been so very, very lonely.

"Oy! Shino! Are you just gonna sit there or are we actually gonna train?" Shino started from his dark thoughts and slowly raised his head so that his almost completely covered face and eyes could see who was talking to him. There, in the middle of the glen that they had picked specifically for today's training session, was his former teammate Inuzuka Kiba, his hands on his hips and his eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I been callin' to ya for a good five minutes, what happened? Did one of your little bugs crawl in your ear or something?"

Shino cringed in his mind but didn't let it show physically. Hinata, he noted slowly, was looking at Kiba with a mixture of shock and disarray, her mouth open that he had said something that disrespectful to someone like Shino. But the bug nin let it slide as he stood up, quickly saying in his mind that Kiba didn't know better and that's just how he was, sadly. He was a hot head with little if any disregard for those around him and how to tread on political correctness. He could care less if someone was offended by something he said, and in a way… the chuunin secretly envied the dog nin.

"Sorry, I was… distracted," Shino said in his deep voice, shifting around to where his hands were out of his pockets and by his sides.

"Well stop it, we're here for a reason," Kiba said with a wave of his hand and drew out a kunai, shifting into battle stance while smirking at the bug shinobi. "We're gonna do hand to hand combat today, remember?"

"Yes," Shino said and watched the brown haired other crouch down and charge him, his eyes flaring at Shino who just stood there. However, just as Kiba was to kick and then slash him the bug nin jumped back quickly, never losing his footing as he then flipped away from the dog nin that was chasing and snarling at him.

Hinata watched while shaking her head, sighing as she watched the two men of her squad go at it, or rather, watched as Kiba tried to hit Shino who either dodged or used a shield of his kikaichu. You would think that the hot head would learn… she thought with a small smile and sat back, resting her back against a small stump that she had heard from Lee was the remnants of his old training log.

Kiba grunted as his fist met with the ground, his eyes narrowing in anger while pain shot up his arm. Though he left a sizable mark in the earth where his fist had made contact he was suddenly reminded of his fight with Saiyuki and how she had made craters with a simple tap and how she had acted like her hits were nothing, that they'd done her no harm whatsoever. He was so distracted by his brooding and envy that he didn't noticed Shino's knee coming to his face until it made pain erupt into his senses and blood was running from his nose.

Shino stared in mild shock that Kiba had let such an obvious attack land on him then noted how the dog shinobi stumbled back and wiped the blood from under his nostrils, his eyes dark and distant. He wasn't focusing on this fight, he thought slowly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Report scroll?"

"Right here, Tsunade-baa-chan," a scroll was thrown upon the Hokage's desk but her eyes were elsewhere. The leader of the Leaf watched as her most forefront teenaged jounin walked over to the window and stared out of it almost listlessly, her mouth in a firm line and her honey brown hair shifting before her eyes in thick spikes. Tsunade frowned lightly at seeing someone like the taijutsu specialist in this state and silently observed the girls posture.

She was rigid and yet languid at the same time. Her amber eyes, usually full of so much life and ire at the world, were blank and glassy, and her usually sun scorched and golden looking skin was seemingly paler and fallow in appearance. There were bruises here and there from her fight with the enemy jounin's that had followed her on her last mission and cornered her, but nothing that needed the attention of a medic nin, so then why was there such a sour look upon the much younger woman's face?

Saiyuki shifted and turned, feeling the presence of the Hokage's stare on her back and trying to push passed it. She stared out at the glittering Konohagakure, her hands clenching and resisting the urge to punch out the glass that was in the window. She could tell she wasn't going to get out of this situation now. Tsunade wanted to know what was eating her alive, only problem was she wasn't sure she wanted anyone to help her shoulder it. It was her burden and hers alone.

"Sai… you know you can tell me anything," Tsunade breathed and leaned forwards in her chair, wanting to help the young woman before her. Saiyuki turned her head so that her amber eyes, surprisingly slit despite their dull and lackluster look to them, were piercing into her and staring seemingly into the blondes very soul.

"I know," Sai whispered and turned back to staring at her city. "Thanks for your concern, Hokage-sama."

"If this is about… your parents, you can tell me. I can set up some counseling, like a few years ago," the blond leader offered kindly, not liking how Saiyuki was just standing there, no real tension, no ready, just her, not a kunochi of heavy training and diligence.

Saiyuki's head shot up slightly and she shot Tsunade a dark look, her fangs falling over her lower lip. "It didn't help last time, why would it now?" Saiyuki breathed hotly to her superior, uncaring if she over stepped some boundaries. She was close to Tsunade, that was putting it mildly, but she didn't understand, no one understood what it felt like… "You're little counseling did nothing but make it worse… because he wasn't alone, he didn't understand, he didn't know what it was like to come home to empty halls and be reminded of what it was like when those halls were filled with happy memories and times. No one can understand," Saiyuki all but snarled quietly, her eyes now down cast and refusing to look into the brown ones of the other woman.

Tsunade sighed and nodded slowly. That was true, so very true. Very few people knew what it was like for Saiyuki and fewer still would know how to make it feel better for her, for they were in the same boat. "How long has it been, Sai…? How many years."

Saiyuki scoffed and rested her forehead against the cold glass of the window, shutting off the sight of a happy Konoha from her sight. All of the people with their families, all happy, all cheerful, all so unbearably together and united, was making her sick with self loathing. Why couldn't she have something like that?

"Ten years," Saiyuki divulged after letting the silence stew for a long time.

"I see… are you going to the memorial later?"

"No, I have paperwork for other missions to do and then Genma is forcing me to go with him to some weird thing," she muttered, waving her hand around vaguely. "Something about some stupid contest Gai got Kakashi to do, to 'finally prove who is better' or some lame thing like that. Personally, I think that Gai never stands a chance… Kakashi is the strongest of all us jounin and Gai…" Saiyuki laughed a little nervously and ran a hand behind her head, "let's just say that being a spaz doesn't have that many advantages."

"And you would know this the hard way," Tsunade observed and snickered when the younger girl shot the leader a hard look.

"What is that supposed to mean!?" Saiyuki demanded, her eyebrows now furrowed so deeply that Tsunade had to stifle a laugh at that.

"That you sometimes have been known to flip just a little," Tsunade assured though she could tell that her merely speaking right now was making the cat's fur bristle in ire.

"I flip because people get on my nerves!" Sai said with obstinacy ragging behind her eyes. "Like stupid dog boy what's his name," she said under her breath, growling as she turned back to Konoha with her arms folded over her chest. Tsunade raised her eyebrows at Saiyuki assuming she hadn't heard that little outburst from the cat nin, almost having to think twice about what she'd heard.

"You mean Inuzuka Kiba? Remind me never to give you two a mission together…" Tsunade observed with a small quirk of a smile. "Then again, I suppose that you two wouldn't get along, it's like sticking two very stubborn animals in a sack together and watching what happens. Though I must admit that you and Kiba-san are a lot alike when you get right down to it."

"I am nothing like that idiot!" Saiyuki snarled and whipped around to face her superior, her eyes narrowing and harsh. She stood there for a few seconds, her body tingling with ire that someone had dared to compare her to someone that weak and that… stinky, that she thought her fingers would be permanently clenched into her palms. All she saw in Tsunade's eyes was amusement at her outburst and what was even worse was that there was a flash of what appeared to be triumph. She was nothing like Kiba! She was no where similar to him! She could wipe the floor with him and all he'd be able to do was to whine like the pathetic little puppy he is! How dare someone as supposedly wise as Tsunade say something so completely and total moronic!!

"He does have his good points, Sai, you need to learn that," Tsunade stated and leaned back in her chair, her arms coming to rest under her unnaturally large breasts. Saiyuki stared at them for a second and wondered how on earth she fought with those things getting in the way… then again this was coming from someone like Sai who was almost flat chested because of all of her training. Envy set in deep in her soul because she knew that Tsunade also got a lot of looks from men for merely having breasts that size while Saiyuki got them merely because most guys were afraid of her.

Saiyuki scoffed when the leaders statement settled into her brain and she had time to process it. She thumbed a head of a kunai, her eyes darkening ominously as she thought. "Like what? There can't be many good things about someone that smells that bad… or who's that stubborn and stupid. He didn't even give in when his body was being torn to ribbons in our fight, and I was holding back, considerably," she said in a scathing voice, still feeling a slight twinge of guilt when she pictured Kiba strewn out on the hospital bed, hooked up to wires and tubes.

Tsunade shrugged casually. "He's very loyal to those he's friends with, and he would die to protect Akamaru, just like you would for Saito. He also has remarkable tracking abilities," she said with a wave of her hand.

Saiyuki raised her eyebrows slightly then shrugged. "What good would hyper smelling do?"

"You've been reading up on him?"

"No, I've merely been researching the different clans in Konoha over the last few months for my upcoming S-rank mission, you know that. It's important to find any and all connections between clans and clan members so that I'm not surprised on the battle field," the younger kunochi stated matter of factly.

"So you have been reading up on him."

"Him and every other member of a clan that stretches back a hundred years or so! Would you stop it!?" Saiyuki practically barked and then sighed and pounded her head against the glass.

Tsunade smirked at her small accomplishment. "Cat's always were such curious creatures," she observed and barely had time to dodge as Saiyuki chucked a rather heavy paperweight at her. She was just about to start screaming at her in a rage when the window was thrown open and Saiyuki was out of the office in a flurry of hair ties and red, her form disappearing almost as easily at it had come.

The Hokage breathed heavily as she leaned back once again in her chair and rested a hand to her aching temple. That child could be such a hassle sometimes. She was lucky that she had taken her under her wing when her parents had… Tsunade winced as images of that horrible night came rushing into her mind, of blood, fire, smoke drifting into the sky and circling around in thick clumps, piercing into the perfect night sky and tainting it a horrible shade of inky black. And of the young girl sitting there in the middle of all of it, her face sodden with tears and soot and blood, her hands limply on her knees and staring up at the ANBU agents that had come to aid what had happened only to find themselves to late. Yes, she couldn't even begin to understand the kind of pain that Saiyuki had gone through in her entire life, but that didn't give her an excuse to just shut down and withdraw from everyone and everything like she was trying to do. She didn't want to have another Uchiha case on her desk.

Saiyuki landed on the grounds of the Hokage building with a light thud and started to walk as if the fall from easily six stories had been nothing. It had been something, because the bones in her legs were shivering at the strain, but she'd learned over the years the extent of what she could and could not do, and that jump was still safely in her limit.

The taijutsu specialist began walking along with her head bowed slightly. It had been ten full years since that horrible night. They'd left her… they'd left her and though she shouldn't feel angered or spiteful towards them, it was the fact that she did that made her feel all the worse about it. She shouldn't feel this badly. She shouldn't, but she did. Usually it vented off to become blinding rage so that she could attack random things and get all of the energy out of her so that she could relax at home with Saito. But today was different. This day had always been different. This day, no matter the cloudless sky and the laughing kids and singing birds, would always have a cloud of doom and gloom over it that rained heavily the icy waters of defeat and utter despair down upon the usually strong kunochi.

She'd shouldered this burden for so long, so very long now, she wasn't sure how much longer she could hold it in. It seemed the longer she went without the more it built up until she was gasping for release from it all. All she had in her life was Saito, was her partner panther, and that's all she'd ever really had.

She paused and glanced up to a nearby tree, staring at its green leaves and watching as the wind rustled through it, causing it to sound as if the world was whispering to her. Telling her it was okay. Telling her she wasn't alone. But she was, the world was lying, everyone was lying, she'd never be that little girl again, her parents would never be back, and she would never get the chance to tell them one last time how much they'd really meant to her.

"Fuck, I'm getting all melodramatic," she muttered under her breath and kept up her trek down the dirt roads of Konoha, not even pondering on where her feet were leading her. Most likely the park, as it usually happened. That or the training grounds so that she could get her mind off of this seeping depression by pummeling the ground and adding a few notches to her resistance training. Not that it mattered really since her body was on autopilot while her mind was busy with scenes from that horrible night.

She decided abruptly that her thoughts were getting a little too dark for her tastes and started to force her mind to think on something else. Concentrating on something that she found interesting was the only real thing that would snap her from her dilemma… Saiyuki started slightly when flashes of the alleyway came to her mind, of the world spinning and Aubrame Shino standing at the end of it, his eyes locked on her through his glasses and the sun setting starkly behind him.

She barely had any time to process why her mind had flashed over to the image of her would be savior when it slammed back around the scene of the end of her branch, of the end of her life as she'd known it at such a young age. She snarled and slammed her palm against one of her amber eyes, trying to will away the burning behind them with the simple act of abrasively rubbing against the socket, her teeth gnashing in desperation. Purely physical. That's all that Saiyuki knew, that's all that she had ever known, she hadn't been strong enough, her body had been too weak, it had been too frail and small. Never again!

Sai gave a frustrated almost keening cry when tears were starting to trickle from her eyes and down her palm, running down the now scuffed up surface of her cheeks. "Why won't it fuckin' stop??" she whispered and slammed her shoulder hard against a wooden fence, wincing sharply when all it did was to send a shiver of pain down her spine to her very toes. She kept doing this, her fingers practically clawing at her orbs that were persisting to stream with hot salty liquid, her shoulders receiving a fair beating.

This went on for several minutes until finally exhausted and emotionally drained Saiyuki slid down a pole and buried her face into her dirtied palms, letting out a silent sob. There was the soft sounds of tears hitting against the pavement while the buildings and trees around her bravely showed their markings from her nervous breakdown, the cat nin continuing her quiet sorrow. Alone. Always alone, she thought while biting her fanged teeth over her lip soundly until she tasted blood. I've always been alone. I'll always be alone. No one cares. No one will know, no needs to know, no one should be burdened with it, no one will understand.

Just as she was sinking lower and lower, her chest burning and hiccups starting to set in from her constant sobbing, a dark shadow fell down upon her from the afternoon sun. She started, glancing up with a tearstained face, her fists instantly knocking the obtrusive streaks from her tanned face, and stared down the narrow street almost wearily.

"Geez, cat bitch, what's got you all in a tizzy?" Saiyuki's eyes clouded now in ire as the form of Kiba came into her blurred sight. He stood there, with his hands on his hips and his eyebrows knitting together in almost confusion while his dark eyes smoldered into her.

Kiba had been walking home from the days practice, his leather jacket folded over his arm and showing off the white tee that lay underneath, soaking with sweat and small flecks of blood from when Shino or Hinata had actually managed to land a hit or vice versa. He'd just been turning down the road as a short cut to his apartment with his sister and the pack of dogs that lived with them, with Akamaru who had stayed out of the training that day by his side, when he'd picked up the scent of something he had thought he had smelt the last of when Sakura had decided that Sasuke was no longer something she should mourn. He had glanced around just in time to see familiar hair bent over sun scorched arms, the smell and sound of tears steadily hitting the ground filling his mind. For some reason the righteous anger he usually felt when she was around hadn't flared, not like it usually did, but an anger at her tears, that she was crying over something. Ninja weren't supposed to show emotions, least of all sorrow, she was leaving herself wide open.

Saiyuki's eyes narrowed while a small hiss of indignation at him came from her clenched fangs, her fingers gripping into the sides of her hair. She turned from him, smirking coldly while closing her eyes tightly, trying to fight off the suddenly stronger presence of tears. "Go away dog breath, I don't need your smell or your idiocy right now, and your insults can go with you for all I fucking care," she spat at him, running her calloused palms over her eyes again and again until the skin was raw and starting to blister at the edges. The more she wiped it seemed the harder they came down.

Kiba snorted, not taking this rejection lightly. "Fine, fuckin' see how it is, I try to help and here you are actin' all high and mighty. Teaches me to worry about you," he snapped peevishly and waved his hand around, throwing his jacket back on and heading to move up the road when she shot him a cold look. A look that was somehow greatly magnified by the rivers running from the slit golden eyes that were boring into his very soul.

"What do you want, inu-baka?" she muttered hoarsely, the crying starting to affect her throat.

Kiba was suddenly brought slamming back down to what he'd been thinking on for a few days. It was well known that Kiba was fast, yes, and that his taijutsu was also very good. But, when compared to someone like Saiyuki or even Lee, it was nothing, he hardly even registered a blip on their radar, and she'd been able to just throw him around that clearing like a rag doll. He had to get stronger. He had to be better, faster, smarter, he had to be able to defeat that bastard for what he had done to his team and his friends. Those same amber orbs kept piercing into him questioningly, her mouth forming into a fine purse, demanding him with the now drying of her emotion that his answer was needed fast.

Kiba ran a hand down the nape of his neck, not really sure how to ask this. His chestnut hair blared in the afternoon sun, shifting around on his head and coming before his Konoha headband. Nerves fluttered in his stomach like he'd never felt and he wondered idly if this was worth it. She could say no. She would most likely say no since all he ever did was insult her and she did the same with him, and she'd even called him pathetic…

"Nothing, geez, just saw you cryin' and wanted to see what all this shit was about," he lied quickly and mentally slapped himself.

Saiyuki gave a short snort, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "You can't lie very well for a shinobi," she stated.

Fuck. Kiba thought quickly, trying to come up with anything, anything at all, that could cover for his phony little charade. Ah just give it up, he thought slowly and sighed in almost defeat, "alright, god, are you always this trusting, cat bitch?"

"Do you always swear like a sailor, dog breath?"

"Would you stop calling me that! I DO NOT STINK! I brushed my teeth three times this morning!" Kiba bellowed at her. It was true. He had made sure to brush his teeth vigorously this morning just so that he might, on the off chance, prove to this very chick that his breath didn't stink and neither did he. Although… that didn't mean that he'd taken a shower that morning. He wasn't willing to go that far just to prove a freaking point.

"I'll stop calling you dog breath when you actually don't smell like dog breath," Saiyuki shrugged and stood, taking in a deep breath. She felt much better now, although there was still that sinking pit in her stomach, she didn't feel like she was about to start falling into a vat of some darkness that had been overtaking her since they had left.

She busied herself with patting off the dirt from her dark red shirt and from her cropped black pants, her eyes narrowing in thought. "Now, what the hell did you want, dog breath?"

Kiba bristled but kept his flaming temper in check. "I, uh," he almost stammered when she looked at him with raised eyebrows, her hands on her hips and her arms showing each and every cut and curve in them. He threw his arms up in exasperation and finally came out with a bark, "I want ya to train me in taijutsu, all right!? There, I fucking said it!"

Saiyuki was stunned. She blinked a few times, her eyebrows coming to knit firmly together while the world seemed to stop its spinning. Now this, she had not expected. This was something so foreign to her, so completely out of her realm of thinkable plausibility that it was almost laughable in its directness and contradictory manner. She put a hand to her forehead, running the slightly clawed nails over the skin roughly then stared at him like he'd grown a second head. The dog that was beside him, that had remained surprisingly silent, shifted and tilted his head at her, almost as if conveying the same anxious curiosity as to her answer as his owner and… partner.

The jounin female snorted slightly, cleared out her ear with her pinky finger and then when she found nothing even remotely resembling the sizable mass it would take to make such a promotion plausible she looked back at Kiba slowly. "You want me to what?" she asked cautiously, as if she still didn't believe what he'd said.

Kiba snarled and gripped at his parted messy hair, his eyes closing tightly. The markings under his eyes that came down to his collar bone wrinkled at the motion while his entire face looked like a pissed off wolf or dog, making his request all the more comical. "I want ya to train me in taijutsu so that I can get stronger! Do you need me to make signs?? Are you deaf or something??" Kiba barked loudly at her.

Saiyuki gripped her hands into fists at him daring to insult her like that when he was asking for her assistance in something this important. "I was considering it, idiot, since you suck so badly at it, but now I'm not so damn sure!" she hissed at him, her shoulders rising practically up to her ears.

Kiba blinked a few times, disbelieving that he had heard her correctly. "Wait, what?" she was wiling to train him?

Saiyuki snorted and turned her back to him, moving to walk away and finally get home to Saito who had to sit this last mission out. "I said that I was going to help you out, but since you can't stop insulting me I changed my fuckin' mind!" she snipped.

"You're one to talk! You call me dog breath!"

"Yea, I did, but I didn't imply that you were lacking in any senses, though you are rather dim in some areas," Saiyuki mused and turned back to Kiba with her hands on her hips. She noted the slightly panicked look on his face, as if her not training him would be a downfall of some kind, and she raised her eyebrows at this. There was another reason behind him wanting to get stronger, faster, wanting to be as good at taijutsu as she was, but what…? His dark eyes were flashing with determination and somehow, on some level she didn't know about, she knew that this kid wasn't going to let up until she helped him out.

Letting out a stream of curse words under her breath followed by a deep and almost agonized sigh she ran a hand through her hair and shook her head slowly. "Fine," she stated softly.

Again, Kiba had no choice but to blink his disbelief that it had been that easy. His scowl was slowly over come by a wide smirk and his entire body shook with the promise of becoming better, of being a better shinobi! He jumped up and down for a few seconds, letting out a variations of bark like proclamations while Akamaru's great body was running around his partner in excitement. Saiyuki stared with a twitching eyebrow, her mouth pursing and wondering just what she'd gotten herself into.

"YES! Now we'll be able to beat that little shit! Huh, Akamaru!? That kicks ass!" Then Kiba turned to Saiyuki with the biggest grin she'd ever seen on anyone and she had really no choice but to allow a small smile herself.

Then, she felt a slight sinking in her stomach. She ran a hand over the nape of her neck almost nervously, staring at this scene with weary eyes while Kiba was now hugging Akamaru around the neck, nuzzling into the off white fur. Just as she was starting to silently enjoy the scene with the sinking growing by the minute with the thought that she'd have to teach someone something caught her attention, as well as Kiba's.

Kiba turned on his heel and glanced up onto one of the fences that surrounded the two shinobi and smiled up widely at his long time friend. He waved his hand excitedly at Shino, who stood there with his hands in his large jacket and his dark hair hidden by his hood, looking like some ominous shade. "Yo! Shino! Prepare to go down at the next training session!" Kiba practically snarled and pumped his arm in the air excitedly.

Shino grunted a small response then turned his attention back over to the companion that his teammate had somehow managed to attain. He felt a small stirring somewhere within him when his eyes fell upon the familiar hair and eyes that was the kunochi that he had saved just days before, a stirring he tried to suppress because he was unsure of what it was. She stared back at him with those shocking eyes, her mouth in a firm line and her hands relaxing from their balled up fist positions that Kiba had undoubtedly produced. The sixteen year old male shifted slightly and jumped from the fence, coming to stand almost between the ninja though his eyes never left the startling sight of amber gold.

Saiyuki raised an eyebrow at Shino staring at her. Then she glanced from Shino to Kiba, the dog of who was howling and slapping Shino on the back who just stood there and took it with a slightly annoyed look coming to his eyebrows that were furrowing slightly.

"Hey, Shino, I want ya to meet someone! This chick is gonna be training me in taijutsu for a while! Soon you're gonna go down, bug boy. This is," he didn't get to finish as the bug nin quickly bowed his head.

"Haraku-san," he breathed quickly, his deep voice reverberating through the air.

Saiyuki sneered at Kiba who was staring in shock at the transaction happening between his best friend and his newest rival. She bowed slightly back and said with a laughing tone that did nothing to belie her humor at the situation:

"Aubrame-san. Thanks, again," she muttered and a serious look came over her face. "Without you I might still be in that alley," she stated with slight trepidation. It had taken several days for her to be comfortable with coming out and saying that. She had fought with her self over this very topic, her stubborn pride assuring her hundreds of times over that she could have made it on her own while the aching in her limbs had informed her that she could not have. She was lucky that Shino had been there, she was lucky to be alive right now.

Shino nodded curtly. They locked eyes even through Shino's dark glasses while Kiba took in the scene with no small amount of pure confusion. What was going on here!?

"I couldn't just let you pass out there," was all that Shino muttered back and Saiyuki smirked lightly at him. She found that she liked this man far more than the dog boy that was starting to let out frustrated sounds that could only be akin to a whimper, his eyes narrowing at the both of them.

When she smirked at him Shino couldn't help the small clench in his chest. He wanted to grab there and look at his hand to make sure he hadn't been wounded there but repressed the urge. He could feel it again, the slight electricity between the two of them, the way that this girl stared at him with a gaze that was almost as calculating as his own, the way her hair fell over one eye, and the way that her body moved ever so slightly when she shifted from one foot to the next. He tried to push these under, but for some reason, it wasn't working. It confused him, and Aubrame's did not like to feel confused.

Saiyuki shrugged and turned to Kiba who was turning an amusing shade of red from his anger and displacement in the group. She scoffed and motioned to Shino quickly, deciding to get in a quick jab on the lower ranking shinobi, "This idiot a friend of yours?"

"HEY! I am not an idiot! First dog breath, now this!? What the fuck is wrong with you??" Kiba snapped peevishly and even Akamaru's fur was starting to bristle at her from the waves of annoyance coming from his partner.

Shino smiled inwardly and nodded. "Sadly, yes."

"What? Shino, man, you're supposed to be on my side! You're a member of my team!"

"I'm on no ones side," Shino said with a small chuckle, watching as Kiba and Saiyuki started to posture and a rather large argument broke out over whether or not Kiba was an idiot.


	7. Chapter 7 Kiba's secret

**Chapter seven:**

**Kiba's secret **

"**Mission, what mission??"**

Saiyuki huffed as she flipped back, landing gracefully only having to jump back yet again as Kiba barreled towards her, his fangs gnashing together. The sun was setting yet again on a day of training, flowing golden rays upon the tattered training grounds that had seen much better days than this one, or the others that had taken place when the two had sparred.

"_I won't go easy on you, I have to warn you… I'm a very hard teacher. I don't like weaklings." _She had told him that, the very first time he had walked into this clearing all those sessions ago, with her arms crossed deftly over her chest and her amber eyes blazing with seriousness. She had stated it so finally, as if entering into this agreement meant the difference between life and death and that when he entered into her training that he was to be put through quite a trial. He hadn't believed her, he had thought it would be easy. Learn how to control his chakra into his punches, learn to be a little faster, and lift some weights here and there. He had been wrong.

Kiba grunted as his sweaty and dirt smudged form was sent flying back with a firm kick to the stomach after he had almost successfully pinned the woman to a rock, her foot coming back to her while her eyes were slowly starting to slit in the dying light. She wiped a small trail of blood from the side of her mouth with the back of her hand, her body loose and languid while his was still tense and taught with ill ease. There was a low rumbling informing them that the large white dog sitting atop of a nearby mound did not approve of such rough housing, but neither combatant had time to think on it for they were soon back together in a flurry of movements and sweat slicked limbs.

"_I don't have any intentions of teaching you my families secret taijutsu, let's just get that straight first off. But I can teach you what my sensei back in my chuunin and genin days taught me, which should be more than enough. Don't be surprised if you wake up in the hospital the first few times,"_ she'd muttered as she had charged him, giving him no chance to respond or to prepare. She had wanted to start off right away, stating as he had fallen the ground and rolled to avoid her solid, breaking fist, that she hated to waste time and needless expressions when fighting or training. Time was precious when it came to these kinds of things, one didn't improve by talking, one improved by actions, and actions needed a proper, set amount of time to accomplish them. He hadn't argued, then again, he hadn't had time. And she'd been right. He had woken up in the hospital the first five times of their training to an almost screaming Sakura and the slightly smirking and smug face of his trainer in the corner.

Kiba wheeled around, forcing chakra into his foot and managed to slam it into the ground just as Saiyuki once again dodged, though this time he could feel the heat and softness of her skin before she moved, meaning… He was getting faster. His heel broke through the ground almost like hers always did but with much less effect, only shattering somewhat into the fissure and creating what he thought was a humble homage to what the cat nin could do.

He gagged however when he let his mind wander too far and his muscles were too tense to react when her ankle had spun around and struck hard into his side, her claws digging into the earth beside her and her eyes never leaving his wide ones. He coughed up a small amount of blood then gritted his fangs and clutched onto her leg before she could get away, spinning the cat around and sending her crashing into the ground, causing her to let out a gasp of pain. Dirt flew up into her already brown hair while the substance smeared even more heavily onto her worked skin, the bruises shivering and her fingers grabbing into the soft soil under her.

"_Think of it this way, when you fight, do it with all of your passion. Do not hold back anything, or you will regret it. Treat each and every foe as a major threat and use your chakra and strength wisely. Also, don't tense so much, when you tense your muscles cannot relax fast enough when you need to dodge," _she had said to him once after yet again managing to punch him in the arm, sending pain shooting up his body. He had fallen to the ground, still in the early phases of their training sessions, and glared at her, rubbing the dark swelling area. Another visit to Sakura was in order… but he'd learned his lesson, he could see her point and the way that she was blocking out the sun above him made her all the more ominous.

The brief victory of him having sent her barreling into the ground was short lived for her fangs gnashed together and her legs wheeled around in a fantastic circle, kicking him hard in the face and then in the stomach, then she stood quickly and her fist met with his chin, sending him skidding back in the compacted dirt with spit and blood flowing freely. Saiyuki stood, rolling her shoulders and coming back into a fighting stance, her chest heaving, having long abandoned her red shirt for her mesh top and black under tank, her bindings and black bandages showing around the toned curves of her form. Kiba nursed his wound while glaring at her, rocking his jaw back and forth while watching her breath, how every single muscle in her overly strong for a girl body moved with the motion, making her look like a crouched puma ready to strike him down.

"_Give it up, Kiba, I really don't want to have to actually knock you out, _again _We're done for the day anyway," _she had stated rather firmly, watching as he crawled towards her, his eyes flaring with wild need to defeat her while his tattered and battered body was refusing to allow him that.

"_I won't give up! That's not how I am! Besides,_" he'd smirked, _"you sound like you actually care if you have to knock me out or not!"_ That had earned him being knocked unconscious and waking up to a fuming pink haired kunochi. It had been two months since that moment, since their first training session, and now they met every other day, giving Kiba one day off for breaks and missions. Now, it was one of the things that Kiba looked forwards too the most, because that meant he would be stronger, that the man he wanted to taste his vengeance would have to try a hell of lot harder than he had to before!

"Give it up, Kiba," Saiyuki breathed deathly quiet, informing him that he was now officially getting on her nerves and that he was starting to rank on her threats list. He came to a sitting position, blood still drizzling down the side of his face as well as from the wide array of cuts and bruises that she had yet again given him. It was a miracle how fast he had also started to heal thanks to these training sessions… these full out hands on sparring sessions that always left him gasping for breath. He'd never met someone like Saiyuki and as she flicked one of the ropes of hair over her shoulder and put a hand on her hip, coming into a normal standing position, he highly doubted he ever would again.

"Yea right," Kiba hissed though his entire body was aching and smarting, begging him to do just that, give up. He had yet to win against her, then again, he supposed if he did then the training would be over and then he'd have no reason to spar with her. Other than to get a good challenge.

Kiba came to a standing, wavering slightly while his vision started to blur, watching Sai intently. She shook her head and was suddenly before him, glaring him in the eyes and holding up a stiff hand threateningly, knowing that she could very well just chop him and walk away until he woke up in the clearing a few hours later. She'd done it before. She was not afraid to do it again.

Even over the past two months, the two still warred like no tomorrow. Though it was slowly starting to become more along the lines of a routine than anything truly insulting, even if Dog Breath, his oh so affectionate nickname, still made him want to throttle her. Kiba snarled at her and just as her eyes flared with anger at his stubbornness and was just about to send her hand crashing down into his weak neck something caught both of their senses.

"Aubrame-kun," Saiyuki stated with a hint of a smirk on her face and turned slowly, putting her hands on her hips and tilting her head to the side.

Kiba's eyes followed Saiyuki's much sharper ones to see, indeed, Shino, his teammate, walking towards them with his jacket fluttering slightly behind his brisk gate. But… also… there behind Shino followed someone that Kiba had come to rather care about and become protective over. No one would hurt her as long as he was around. No one would so much as even think of doing something bad to her as long as Kiba could help it. And no matter how much she told him she was fine, that she was a more than capable kunochi now, there was no getting Kiba from doing all of this for her. There, behind Shino, came the almost shirking form of Hyuuga Hinata, her hands in her pockets shyly and her white eyes cast forwards at them all in that knowing stare.

Kiba almost chocked on his tongue but all he did was to stiffen up slightly and plaster a big, goofy grin on his face. He was just about to go bounding up to the heiress when he noted a flash of white and with a slight grumble saw that Akamaru had beaten him too it.

Kiba had thought he masked his reactions to Hinata, for neither of his teammates had even so much as guessed so far, but Saiyuki eyed him and his strange behavior. Putting it off as Dog Breath being an idiot (of which Kiba still denied very hard) she turned to Shino who had come to stand a few feet from her and was staring at her through the sunglasses of his.

"He has not given you trouble today?" Shino inquired his usual question. This was routine now. She would train Kiba into the ground, his teammates would come for him, and then they would all take him to the hospital at some point. It usually took all three of them to get him restrained enough to take him to the hospital. But during those few weeks Saiyuki had found odd comfort in Shino's silence and found that she rather enjoyed his company.

"Pft, no more than usual," Saiyuki said in a sarcastic tone and watched as Akamaru tackled her sparring partner. She shook her head and ran a battered hand through her hair, pursing her lips in thought.

"That is still a lot, by normal standards," the bug nin observed and earned a snicker from Saiyuki who watched as Kiba now was talking loudly and boisterously with Hinata over how good he was getting while she fretted over his bruises and cuts. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, passing the wire frame of his glasses and racked his gaze over her almost shamelessly. He still didn't know. After months of debating and debating, over and over, he didn't know, and it was driving him crazy. Not to mention that the thrumming his kikaichu did whenever she was near was getting gradually worse and making him think that maybe there was something wrong with the bugs.

Either way, the way that setting sun swept across her sweat streaked body, lighting up the bronzed skin that was almost darker than Umino Iruka's, while causing a stark contrast to her amber eyes was fascinating Shino to no end. He was confused, he was no longer ashamed to admit it, but he still was demanding to know what he was confused about.

Sensing his staring Saiyuki started from her thoughts and glanced over to Shino who had shoved his hands into his pockets and was now watching the fool of a dog roll around with Akamaru while Hinata giggled. She raised her eyebrows at him and just as she was to ask him what was bothering him, for he didn't stare at her often as far as she could tell, a rock beamed her in the side of the skull.

"HEY! I asked you a question!!" Kiba snapped at her with a smug look on his face for having managed to actually hit her.

Saiyuki snarled and nursed her head, her temples throbbing while she righted herself. She came to full standing, her hackles raised while her teeth were barred in a menacing way. "You little! I'm going to kill you!! Why the fuck did you just throw a ROCK at my HEAD!?" she bellowed at the top of her lungs.

Shino winced inwardly. If one thing could be said was that the two opposites before him each had equally powerful lungs…

"Well answer next time I ask you a question like five times!"

"What the hell was your question about that was so damn important that you needed to hurl a rock at me!?!?"

"Is it fucking time for me to go yet?" Kiba snarled right back and Saiyuki blinked slowly, her brows coming to furrow sharply. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms over her bandaged chest, her mesh shirt crossing over her black under tank with a vengeance. The first time Kiba had seen her that way he had commented on how flat chested she was which had earned him a bruise that had not healed quite yet.

"Since when do you need my permission, leave already! Besides, you stink, Dog Breath, worse than usual!" Saiyuki snapped right back, regarding his shirtless form that had brown and trails of wet practically dripping off of it. Kiba turned an indignant red and moved to start another fight, his fist pulling back while his eyes narrowed dangerously. But it was quickly smothered when Hinata smiled at him and asked if he would be kind enough to walk her home.

Kiba was calm and laughing loudly at some unheard joke and walking away before Sai could rightly blink. Shino shook his head and slid his hands from his pockets, casting a sidelong look at the fighter next to him as she subconsciously jutted one hip out to the side and cocked her head slightly to the right to where he got a view of the strong muscles in her neck.

"Allow me to walk you home, Haraku-san? I have business to attend to around that area anyway," Shino asked quickly and matter of factly. Saiyuki blinked again, then felt very confused, something she was coming to understand was a habit that this bug ninja had on her, and turned to him with a questioning look. When all he did was to peer at her through those damn glasses that didn't let her see his eyes and what he was feeling she shrugged and put her hands behind her head, kicking up her shirt to land on her shoulder and started walking down the path away from the devastated clearing.

"Sure, why not?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"_You… you know what this means right, Haraku?" a calm voice breathed to her as she stared down at the ground through her hands, her small back up against a corner while trying to will none of this to be real. But it was. And the man that was standing next to her, all clad in blue and grey, with his hand comfortingly on her shoulder and his head inclined so that he could give her the presence of another person near her, was not making things much better. If anything he was making it worse. _

"_Hai, of course I know what it means…" Haraku Saiyuki muttered as her six year old eyes, wise beyond their years, rose up and met the sympathetic ones of the ANBU member before her. He had come almost the second the rest had, only his mission it had seemed, was to get her out of that house as soon as possible so that she didn't have a complete break down. He'd gotten there too late. _

"_Then, you know, they're not coming back," he whispered to her, his sandy brown hair coming to meld into hers slightly while his kind grey eyes studied hers. There was a senbon needle coming from between his teeth, moving up and down as he gnawed on it almost anxiously. Her amber eyes shot to the weapon then back down to the ground as her hands drew from her eyes, a shudder going up her body. There was no getting the image gone, no banishing it, but then again, that's how it always was right? When a ninja saw their first death… _

"_You don't come back from death," Saiyuki stated somberly and turned to the maskless ANBU beside her. He couldn't be any older than fifteen with that young face and yet his eyes seemed ageless, like he had seen far more scenes like that in the house than he would ever admit to. _

"_Do you have any family you can stay with? An aunt or an uncle maybe?" he asked and gripped her shoulder tighter when she shook her head. _

"_No, our clan is in some other village, far away. Mom and dad moved here when I was born, something about wanting to be raised away from the old ways," Saiyuki muttered and glanced over to the large but still not fully grown form of Saito in the corner, his eyes staring firmly at the ANBU. _

"_I see…" the ANBU stood and then kneeled before her, taking her hands from her face and making her look at him fully in the face, his mouth pulling into a firm line. "Well, Haraku Saiyuki-chan, my name's Genma, and I'm going to be taking care of you until the legal system sorts all this out. All right with you?" he asked and patted her head, watching the short brown hair shift before the amber eyes that were a trait of all of her clan. When she slowly nodded, staring at Genma with slightly suspicious eyes, he stood up and smiled lightly down at her, taking the senbon from his mouth and glancing over to the door of the safe house they were locked up in. "I'll make sure they get the people that did this to you, Saiyuki-san," Genma breathed and pulled his mask back down, turning his back to her and heading towards the door. _

"_Do not leave here until I come for you, understand?" he asked stiffly and prepared to leave for the battle that was still raging. Saiyuki nodded quickly, her hands coming to wrap around her knees while Saito shifted and settled next to her, still gazing at Genma in interest. With that the ANBU man that had saved her life vanished in a plum of smoke and he was gone, leaving Saiyuki smeared in red and tears while her mind still was reeling to catch up to what had happened. _

"_Mom… dad…" _

Saiyuki sighed as she sat on the roof of her house, her hands coming to run through her soaked hair and the towel long since abandoned at her shoulders. She watched over the city that had housed them, her parents, before the attack, and found herself mildly hating it. They hadn't tried… they hadn't fought hard enough, she hadn't fought hard enough, and as a result all that the brunette had to come home to was a sulky panther and an empty home. Painfully empty.

She grimaced and turned her gaze from the painful sight of playing families and happy voices up to the sky that had its deep blue color slowly fading once more into a bruised red, showing the death of day and rise of night. So much of life relied on that… so much of life needed death, and no matter where she turned there it was always at her feet. She had once abhorred it, said that she would never become something that caused the ending of a life. What had happened to her?

The cat nin glanced down to her clawed hands, her mouth pulling into a fierce frown. There was still dirt there, still scars and wounds from battles long since passed, and no matter what she did she couldn't get them off. Just like the blood she had spilled over the many years that she had been a shinobi, a worker for the village that had let them all die and leave her in this damn cold place. She had at one point wanted to be nothing more than a shopkeeper, open up her own store of weaponry, maybe even start her own line of pouches to get some extra cash flow, but it hadn't turned out that way. Fate had called her when she had been standing above her parents dead bodies, her feet soaking in red while her eyes had widened to the point where they felt surely they would burst from her skull, and like a vicious animal she had turned, snarled, and run off into the light so that she could have her revenge. That they could have their revenge.

Where had it gotten her though? No where… she was no where with nothing. She had no more of an idea now of who the killer was, oh why there had been so many ANBU at her house that day, than she had ten years ago. The only thing that had changed was that Saiyuki was stronger, faster, able to stop what happened back then and able to kill whoever had done in her only chance at her dreams and happiness. Though… Fate it seemed was a double edged sword. It gave you one thing, the thing it promised, and took away another.

Saiyuki's sensitive ears, trained throughout the years, pricked and twitched and when her head slowly turned around she set eye upon a blurb of black and shimmering blue. Green and gold met her own amber and she let out a scoff, turning back to Konoha while lacing her fingers in her lap, her headband glinting in the sun.

"I know it's dinner time," she remarked.

There was no answer. Not that there ever was. She turned to Saito again and frowned, her mind slowly putting pieces together. Saito was a ninja cat, he was by all means capable of human speech, but she had yet to ever hear him utter a single syllable to her or to anyone else. The two partners had always communicated through other means; looks, gestures, thoughts, just plain being in each others presence sometimes was enough to get an emotion across. There really was no need for talking between the two of them, bit was just… at times such as this she could really use the verbal assurance that only another voice could bring. That and she wanted to know what he would sound like.

Saiyuki put her hands to her temples, running them over her face and trying to get rid of the aching sinuses that were plaguing her thanks to the changing of Konoha's seasons. She glanced back over to her partner through laced fingers, her mouth pursing as she surveyed the immovable mass of black and muscle. He cocked his head to the side under her inspection, his great square face remaining impassive while those glowing eyes showed all there was to be shown.

"I'm fine," she assured and gazed down to the street at the bottom of their house that lead straight down to the main road. They were in the suburbs of Konoha standards, had been when her parents decided that they wanted to raise their child somewhere that the city influence could not reach. Little did they know the city and all its woes would come to them. When her statement was met with a low rumble of disbelief and a stern nudging from a large, wet, and really cold nose, she smirked and reached behind her, running her fingers over the soft, short blackness. "I really am, I'm not depressed. Not my fault that I'm going to have to celebrate alone again this year."

Another grumble of disagreement and Saiyuki scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Well, you're not exactly the best company sometimes Saito! I would like to actually speak with humans sometimes, ya know? And you know perfectly well I included you in that!" she whapped him upside the head and that had consequences.

A growl and a rush of air and soon Saiyuki was falling from the roof while Saito stared after her with a smug look on his feline visage. She gasped, her eyes wide while her arms instinctively came before her face, feeling the rushing air come into her lungs. She acted quickly, throwing her arms from her face, and twisted around, landing with a hard thud on her knees and hissing in pain when her spine shivered from the action.

She cast a glare back up to Saito who, despite completely lacking the ability, she could swear was smirking at her fall. "You are so dead cat!!" she bellowed up at him and drew some kunai from her pouch, ready to jump up to the roof and give her cocky little roommate a piece of his own medicine. However, just as she was crouching down, a sneer on her face as the cat blanched and ran from the roof, her hands coming to the ground while chakra was swirling around her feet threateningly, her body and all of its muscles seized up and started to tingle with pinpricks.

Blood! She glanced up and around, her eyes wide. That same overwhelming smell of thousands of bleeding, dead bodies, all in one place, all plastered to one person and then that persons scent blaring out in the midst of it all. It was so horrible, so dismal that she felt she would wretch right then and there if weren't for the fact that her entire form was frozen over in fear once again. She put a clawed hand to her throat, letting out a shuddering breath while the wounds that had healed over two months ago started to ache in the coming presence. She'd never forget this guy. She'd never forgive him for what he did to Saito!

"You…" Saiyuki hissed and turned, her eyes narrowed and hard, forcing her frozen muscles to move beyond their compliancy.

There he stood, his arms crossed over his chest and his sea green eyes narrowed and blank upon her. He cocked his head slightly though his face never left that perfectly disturbing stature it had taken, his red hair blatantly in the fading summer's sun.

Saiyuki swore under her breath and forced herself to stand, shaking horribly while her mouth went dry. She was trying so hard to gather her thoughts, her everything that she needed to defend herself against the awesome power of the guy in front of her, but… The more she tried to grasp for bravery and to be able to face this guy without flinching the more it ran through her sands, almost as if it was the bastards very own sand. "What do you want?" she muttered and shuddered when his eyes narrowed to a degree, to where there were wrinkles where his eyebrows would have knitted lightly and small creases around the crook of his nose. The last thing she needed was to piss this guy off but she couldn't help the blind rage towards him that was building in the pit of her stomach.

"Does that matter?" Gaara questioned and took a step towards her only to have her slide her sandaled foot back, her fangs falling over her lip in a feral manner. He noted her shiver at him speaking, as if his very voice was causing cold water to spill down her back and her entire form convulse, and he couldn't help but be fascinated with it. Her eyes were those of an animal again, cornered, frightened, slit to the point where there didn't seem to be a mark in the middle of the depthless, terrified amber. Her fangs seemed to elongate and the claws that adorned her fingers were flexing with anxiety. He could smell her fear, her blood pumping hard and fast through her pacing heart, he could sense just how frantic she was and that if he took just another step towards her she would either run or full out attack in blind rage and need of survival. It was… entertaining.

"Hell yes it matters, and don't you come a step closer to me! I though that Suna and Konoha were in a treaty!" Saiyuki spat and had her kunai gripping do hard into her palms that her knuckles were a stark white against her tanned skin.

Gaara seemed to let out a small grunt and came another step closer, seeing if this was indeed the distance bubble that he was to keep with the cat nin before him. She, as he had expected, took two steps back, her breathing becoming labored and a horrified look in her eyes. He let a small smirk creep at the sides of his mouth, his eyes sharpening darkly, "do you think I'm going to kill you?"

The tone in his voice made the blood in her veins run cold and she let out a small hiss of distress, the smell of blood and his own scent overpowering her senses and threatening to black her out. Her instincts were screaming at her to run and she was kicking herself in the head to listen to them but her damn pride was rearing its head once more and making her stay planted to the earth when he took another dreaded step. He was going to slaughter her, she could tell by the looks in his eyes, he was going to kill her and leave her gutted in front of her own house! Well, she wouldn't be going down without a fight, she thought with a snarl and started to try to pump her chakra to her fists and feet but it was as if it was solidified in her veins. "I dunno, you tell me," Saiyuki said with a dying voice, the tone cracking with the panic that was laced with bottomless frenzy.

"I haven't wanted to kill in so long," Gaara breathed. He watched as she winced and came into a fighting stance, her mouth coming into a firm line. There was something about this girl that made his blood boil, the way she fought was so different than anything he'd encountered anywhere else! He wanted to see it again! He wanted to see that fighting style so badly that he could hardly contain the surging of the sand in his gourd. "You fear me," he stated with a small edge to his voice that spoke volumes of his amusement.

"Because you reek of blood," Saiyuki said truthfully and took another step back, glancing frantically to her house that still had the front door open. It was stupid to think that if she got in there she'd be safe, but no matter what he mind was screaming at her to go through that ajar door and slam it, lock it, and hide under her something. Just like she had when her parents had been massacred.

Gaara smirked outright this time, his arms uncrossing and causing her to tense even more, her body starting to shake from the prolonged tensing. He glanced slowly around the alleyway they were in. It was small and narrow with other houses backs to it, in a rather poor part of town in all reality, but he could sense that no one else was in the area. Perfect… he thought and let out a small sound that was akin to her jeering, his fingers twitching for a repeat battle. He took another step forwards and was surprised slightly to see she didn't move, and with two more she moved closer to the ground in a pronounced crouch but didn't move backwards from him. It was only when he was practically upon her, towering over her snarling and spitting form that she took a cautious slid back, he could hear her heartbeat speeding so face he was sure she would die simply by him being this close to her.

"Haraku-san!" just as Saiyuki was going to lung at Gaara, her fingers now hooked into the kunai and ready to rip his throat out from fear and all consuming black hatred, there was a flurry of fabric and hair next to her. A senbon glittering in the sun alerted her to the other ninja's presences, and though she didn't dare break her eye contact with the red haired man before her she knew who it was.

"Genma," she breathed in a slightly squeaky voice, trying to force her muscles to allow her to rise and not attack this man that was still staring her down, almost demanding her to break to him just by his mere gaze alone.

"Saiyuki-san, the Hokage wants to see you, A.S.A.P., got it?" Genma asked as he surveyed the scene cautiously. He had been watching from afar for a good two minutes now, watching as the red haired ruler of Sunagakure came steadily closer, watched as his charge shrunk away then started to shiver and stand her ground. It was really astounding to watch her even think of taking on someone as strong as the Kazekage, but he also known it would have been incredibly foolhardy for her to do such a thing. So he intervened like a good little guardian.

He shifted when he noted that the two were still in a staring contest, Gaara now sliding his arms to a crossed position again, standing above the still crouched kunochi, while Sai was either too terrified to move or she was too stubborn to realize the idiocy of her actions. Even though the sand nin had calmed down considerably he was still a force to be reckoned with, and for some reason the red haired leader was showing a disturbing amount of interest in the cat nin. Finally, turquoise eyes shifted over to him, their eyes shinning with silent hatred for disrupting his little game with the girl and the fight that would have come of it. Where Gaara's eyebrows would have been there was a furrow that showed his agitation and despite his calm demeanor there was a line running along the bottom of his jaw that suggested his teeth were clenching together. Like a horse chomping at its bit, Genma thought squarely.

"Yea, Genma-kun," came the muttering of his former student as she came to a slow and watchful standing, her fingers never letting their iron hold on her kunai go. That would leave a mark. She was just about to walk away from them both, grateful for the interruption and realizing all at once that she could have died in that little tiff when she felt the cold and cruel gaze of her combatant on her.

"We're not done here," he stated quickly and was just removing the cork from his gourd when Genma intervened yet again by crunching on his senbon loudly. The leader shot him an icy look, his annoyance reaching steadily higher levels. He had killed for much, much smaller offenses in his time, and he would be damned if he let this fool continue to come between him and his prey.

"You're needed at the negotiations, Kazekage-sama, to finalize the trade routes," Genma ground out, watching Saiyuki watch Gaara out of the side of her eye, her mouth curved into a tight frown. The red haired male growled lowly like the demon that was housed within his body and removed his pale fingers from the cork, licking the sides of his lips almost anxiously.

"Fine," he stated after a tense moment and was suddenly surrounded in a flurry of wind and sand. And just as suddenly as he had appeared he was gone, leaving a shivering and shaken Saiyuki to sigh in gratification. She turned with a stare to Genma that spoke nothing short of thanks-for-saving-my-ass graciousness.

Then, she too was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving the senbon munching jounin by himself. He put his arms behind his head and heaved a great breath, thanking the gods that he hadn't let this little battle continue. He'd seen what Gaara could do back in the chuunin exams and he was only getting stronger. The last thing he wanted was for someone as underpowered as Saiyuki against the unstoppable man. "Fine, no one stay and talk to me!" he pouted jokingly. He heard a loud grumble from the house and rolled his eyes, "now you show up, you scardy cat!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba grunted as he sat in the middle of the Hokage's office, waiting for the leader to come back from an urgent meeting with the some big wig over trading routes to increase both sides of the agreements financial standings. All that was fine and good but when would he get his next mission?? He had a sneaking suspicion that the Hokage asking him to come here alone and then to come into her office and wait for him meant that it was important and that it was of the up most secrecy. Possible B class, maybe even A, which in short meant that Kiba would at last be getting the kind of missions he was supposed to get as an elite chuunin.

Too long had he been supplied with missions beneath his ranking that were really suitable for a genin team rather than a fully trained and capable chuunin. He beamed smugly at the ceiling, wondering what his mission would involve. Saving an entire village of people from a rouge ninja terrorizing their borders, going undercover in a seedy bar to find a missing nin and report his location, pounding the shit out of some no body with his newly honed skills… he tacked up all the missions that he would love to go on right now and hoped to Kami he got at least one of them.

Kiba was just starting to fantasize about saving a village and then gorging himself at the feast they would prepare in his honor, the women that would be throwing themselves at his feet, and the sort, when there was a puff of smoke and an overwhelming familiar scent. One of either many cats… or just one really big one.

"Cat stink," he greeted through gritted teeth, turning his gaze so that he could see Saiyuki standing by a wall next to the door, her hands in her pockets. She shot him a warning glare then glanced around the empty office. Not finding t he Hokage she let out a sigh and ran her hand through her bright brown hair, swearing many times under her breath.

"Dog breath," she stated and strolled over to stand next to his chair, staring at the empty chair as if to materialize the missing blond woman that commanded them all with a simple glower. She ran her still clawed fingers over the polished wood that had many circles from the Hokage's liquor habit while thinking deeply, and almost instantly Kiba could smell the annoyance radiating off of her form. Annoyance tinged with a bottomless fear that was resounding throughout her entire form.

He knitted his eyebrows at sensing the last part, his jaw clenching despite himself and pondering on just what could reduce someone like Saiyuki into such a state. "What's got you spooked, idiot?" he asked with a small snort. He had just enough time to duck when her foot jutted out at tremendous speed, intent on hitting him in the nose. "HEY!"

She turned to the imbecile she had agreed to teach and snarled lightly at him. Bringing her rear to the edge of the desk she was supposed to report to she leaned against the sturdy furniture and glanced around the room a final time. She was still spooked halfway to hell because of that creep Gaara and this wasn't making it better. She could sense him in the building, she could smell his blood scent just down the hall and two floors upwards. He had tracked her down. He had found out where her house had been and waited from what she could tell, and he had intended on fighting her once again. Only problem was that… she hadn't gotten much stronger since their first brawl where as she could tell that the red haired Kazekage had. She would lose much worse should she fight him once again, to the point where Saito might have to be assigned to another ninja or worse… put in a degrading zoo.

Saiyuki would rather set him free in the wild than to see that happen to something as majestic as her partner. "Nothing," she lied to Kiba when she hared him start to grumble and could feel the heat of his stare, demanding to know the answer to his question. She shot him a look, her lips pursing while her hands came to her hips. "And it's none of your business anyway, it's my personal life," she snapped.

"Fine, fine, shows me for caring," Kiba snapped right back and the two started their normal competition of staring one another down. There seemed to be almost shocks of chakra coming between them as their personalities slammed into each other, refusing to back down, refusing to be the subordinate to the dominate. They both smirked darkly at each other, daring the other one to back down, to be ridiculed for their weakness. But Sai's grin spread wider than his and she suddenly kicked him in the shin, making him yelp in pain and double over, clutching to the wound. "OW!!" the dog nin shouted and hissed at her, his shoulder bunching up to his ears. "The fuck was that!? That wasn't fair!!"

"Ninja," Saiyuki said in a matter of fact tone and crossed her arms deftly, laughing as he nursed his newest bruise at her hand. She suddenly became serious and glanced out of the window, frowning slightly. "You like her," she stated quickly then turned back to Kiba who was raising his head in a dumbfounded manner, looking at her like she had grown a second or even third head.

"Like who?" he asked in a quiet voice, not liking where this was going. If she had figured it out that easily then shit! If Shino or Hinata found out then… he wasn't sure what he'd do! But he certainly would be embarrassed halfway to hell!!

"You're teammate, the one with the purplish hair, the Hyuuga." When all Kiba did was stare at her again she sighed then sneered at him, shrugging, "Then again, I could be wrong… you do seem to hang around Shino a lot…"

"No! It's not him!" Kiba made a disgusted face then let out a bark of despair when Saiyuki jumped up from her casual position. She did a small dance in a circle, laughing her head off. "Kuso!" he swore again and again.

"I KNEW IT!! Poor Hinata, getting the attentions of such a pathetic ninja," Sai jeered and crouched down to Kiba's sitting height. The Dog was just about to punch the cats lights out, a vein popping out in his temple and his rage showing in his gritting and barred fangs, when the door burst open and in walked the tired and for some reason sandy looking Hokage.

She watched Saiyuki come to a standing, wearing a smug look while Kiba was fuming at her, his entire face a bright beet red. The blond leader sighed and ran her fingers over her forehead, over the small jewel that resided in the center, and muttered under her breath 'children, all of them' before coming to the chuunin and jounin waiting. Tsunade watched as Kiba rose up from behind Saiyuki, gritting his teeth and about ready to pounce on her and start throttling her, when the blond raised a hand and cleared her voice.

"Really now… is this how two ninja who are now partners for an A-ranked mission to act??" she demanded hotly and both combatants stopped glaring daggers at each other and turned to stare at the Hokage open mouthed.

Saiyuki started to mouth her shock and then her rage. She stammered, her fingers clenching at being paired with someone ranked below jounin when she herself was an elite! Special class Taijutsu Specialist Haraku Saiyuki, level rank-A, elite forces, front line expert. Where in her description did it say she would work with a CHUUNIN!? "Excuse me?? Mission, what mission?? You're sending me on a mission with this, this, dobe!? His stink alone will give us away!!" she snarled.

Kiba bristled at that and shot her a dark, dirty look before lunging at her, barking at her to shut up, that he didn't stink or was an idiot. Tsunade watched the two fight on the floor, rolling around, punching and kicking each other like three olds while hurling more than adult insults left and right. The Hokage sighed and took a large swig of the sake bottle she'd been holding.


	8. Chapter 8

Attention all that read my stories! There is this little fucktard on quizilla that has taken this and another story from my account! If you liked this story, then please, file a complaint against sweetdream91 on quizilla and get her banned. I will not tolerate such actions and if anyone else dares to do such an act again fair warning that I will contact the proper authorities and I will get you banned from said site.

Thank you and goodnight! still trembling in anger


	9. Chapter 9 Pain of winning

**Chapter eight: **

**The pain of winning**

The forest was deathly quiet at this time of night. There were hardly any animals up to make the leaves stir or the grass flicker in the pale moon light that hovered almost ominously over head. The nocturnal creatures had turned in, for sunrise being but a few hours away, and the day creatures were still sound asleep within their dens and hide away slots from the cold ferocity of the dark. The only sounds were the forest and its massive trees, settling in for the rest of the peace, their bark and trunks snapping in the subtle changes of the temperature around them. That was until something let out a small puff of breath, giving away momentarily their position among the quietude.

Amber eyes flashed dangerously from among the foliage around the two shinobi, their pupils having slit to become more useful within the inky black. Tanned, taught skin shivered with muscles sculpted hard underneath was the body the eyes were attached to moved to crouch down lower among the branches of the tree they hid within. Lips opened up to reveal sharp, indiscriminate fangs while the ears had become ultra sensitive within the silence that was raging loudly against them. The dark blended perfectly with the person hidden within, their chakra pushed down so low that it almost felt like they were nonin.

All this was well and good because if there were an enemy anywhere near here they would need the element of surprise. Or at least she would like it. Saiyuki let out another small puff of breath as she shifted silently among the dark bark, her mouth coming into a purse as she cast her gaze around. They were a good week out of Konoha now, well on their way to their mission destination where they would complete the objective in a swift and silent manner before returning victorious, leaving nary a trace of their presence. That was how it was supposed to go, but they had already encountered some rouge nin on their way out, a few days back, and had been running into one or two a day since. She would like the element of surprise the next time she ran into one so that she could silence them before they signaled ahead to any of the others.

The dying of the crackling of the nearby fire caught her attention and when Saiyuki turned to stare down she noted the dobe she'd been assigned this mission with fast asleep on the ground. She cocked an eyebrow at him then let out an exasperated breath, wondering why the Hokage had been so stupid as to assign her a mission with someone she knew that the cat kunochi could hardly stand for more than a few hours during training. Sometimes she swore that the blond sanin did it just to get on her nerves! Saiyuki's critical gaze swept over Kiba who had his head leaned back on the bed of Akamaru's contrary white fur, an arm sprawled out across his chest and the other over his head and over his dog, clutching to a kunai. He had long since rolled from his sleeping bag and was now on the hard ground of the Konoha edge forest.

Low growling came to Saiyuki's right ear and she let a small smirk come to her features. She shifted as quietly as she could, pushing chakra into her feet and slid down the other side of the branch, hanging upside down to stare at her partner in crime. Bright golden and green eyes stared at her from the branch lower, a hulking, perfectly blended shimmering body of black muscles moving from the cover of the leaves that had surrounded them. Not a word was spoken between the long time allies, all that needed to be said was through body language and the primal speech of their locking eyes. All clear.

Saiyuki gave a stiff nod and carefully slid herself back over to the top of her branch, letting out a more relaxed breath as she slid to sit against the trunk. Effortless heaving and almost soundless thud came to her and she saw her faithful panther sitting before her, his mighty tail swishing in agitation. It had been months since Saito had come on a mission with her, and that it had to be with a dog that was equal to his size that he could hardly stop himself from attacking was driving him almost as mad as not being issued orders in the pervious battles thus far. She had told him the second they got to their destination she would allow him to go wild, literally, and that they wouldn't have to hold back. The team would finally be a unit once more and act as one.

Loud snoring was now emanating from Kiba's throat below and the cat ninja let out a grumble of disgust. How the hell was someone like him a good shinobi!? She cautiously recalled receiving the specs for this particular assignment, going over the finer details to make sure that she had it all down to a T.

"_Calm down the both of you!!" Tsunade had bellowed at the top of her lungs as she separated the kicking and screaming adolescents from each other, holding each of them up by the scruffs of their collars as they tried to attack one another even still. They were acting like five year olds! Since when did the Hokage come with babysitting responsibilities!? _

_She set Saiyuki down first, seeing the cat nin puff our her modest chest in deflated defiance. When the now freed jounin had taken her seat and had settled down for the debriefing it was then and only then that she let the struggling dog down and pushed him back into his sitting position. _

"_Now, stay, the both of you!" Tsunade snapped. The two cowed sheepishly before the impressive and frankly scary woman. They watched nervously as she rounded the corner around her desk, her Hokage robes ruffling around her while she shifted the annoying hat on her head. She sat down with a sigh and set the sake bottle down with a clash, grumbling about being too old for this kind of thing and that this was the kind of job she assigned someone like Kakashi or Gai to do. "Yes, you have a mission together, and yes, you have to be partnered together, there is no other option," she started off and that was immediately met with resistance from both fronts. _

"_Tsunade-baa-chan, you can't be serious!! I'm an elite kunochi; I'm part of the squadron for crying out loud! I was one of the ones out there on the front lines when Sound and Sand invaded our borders three years ago while he was just going through the chuunin exams! If this mission calls for a team, then at least pick a lower rank jounin, do not dishonor me this way!" Saiyuki shouted and gestured around wildly, completely ignoring the slightly hurt look on Kiba's face. _

_The hurt look didn't last for long for soon he was gnashing his fangs at her, his red markings curling under his eyes as they narrowed into slivers. "Please! Like you would stand any chance on an A-rank by yourself! And I'm an elite chuunin, the only reason why I'm not a jounin yet is because the test isn't for a good three months!!" _

_Saiyuki stood from her chair and pointed a finger at the male, her face scrunched up in incredulous rage. "I've been a jounin for four years now, what makes you think you have the stuff to do a mission of this ranking!? This is high rank A-class, if it needs a team, even more so if it's for an elite jounin like myself. You'd get in my way!" she snarled right back. The two were just about to go at each others throats again like rabid animals when Tsunade waved her hand and they suddenly couldn't speak. _

_Both pairs of eyes widened upon her while the owners gawked at her using a jutsu to silence the pair of them. Kiba mouthed and made small squeaking noises, trying to regain his voice, while Saiyuki huffed and plopped back down in her seat, looking very disgruntled. "I am aware of both of your backgrounds, I read the files," the blond leader seethed at the two who were now staring at her like children being scolded for being stupid. "And this is a perfect chance to both assess Kiba's future jounin skills and how you play a leadership role, Saiyuki. This is a chance for you to learn from one another, to grow as individuals, and to stop bickering like you somehow manage to regress back to the terrible twos whenever you come near each other!" _

_They both started to snap and gesture wildly at the Hokage, though when all that came out were strained squeaks and breaking cracks the blond leader quirked an eyebrow. These two could be rather stubborn. But her files and their individual stats indicated that the two of them would be a potent and powerful couple on the battle field. With Saiyuki's ultra sensitive eyes and incomparable taijutsu attached to Kiba's uncanny nose and intense chakra control and power the two could do some serious damage and do it quickly. And that was without their animal counterparts. Tsunade watched the silenced shinobi glare at one another then fold their arms over their chests in unison and turn their heated stares upon her. _

"_Now… are you ready to hear the mission out or are you going to continue to blather on about this? Though your skills would be greatly appreciated and give us an advantage in this coming fight, I can assign other jounin to this and duct your pay…" the leader threatened and instantly she saw both Saiyuki and Kiba pale a considerable degree. If all else failed, threaten the cash flow… she thought with a wry grin. _

_Saiyuki rolled her eyes then moved a hand over her throat with a slightly clawed hand, stating with her eyes and motions that she wanted her voice back. Tsunade supplied it after she nodded to cooling down and listening. The cat nin when she felt the surge of chakra return to her vocal cords and the use of them return let out a moan of gratitude before clearing her voice. Her face became a sheet of serious granite, her features hard and polished while her body became rigid and ready. _

"_Location, objective, time frame, and enemy operatives," Saiyuki stated quickly, crossing her legs. _

"_There we go, there's that get 'em attitude a jounin should have," Tsunade said with an evil sneer before waving her hand and Kiba's throat was cleared as well. _

_Kiba rubbed her throat with a sour look on his feral face before grunting and putting his hands behind his head. He cast a sidelong look over to the partner he'd been given and silently actually thanked his lucky stars he'd been given to someone like her. Any of the other jounin seemed like they would actually get on his nerves more than her, that and… he actually wanted to see her in real life battle that wasn't against him. "Yea, yea, what she said," the dog said with a sigh that came from the depths of his soul. Just because he was given the mission didn't mean he had to enjoy it. _

"_You'll be heading out to the very edges of the Fire, going straight into the enemy front lines. We have been told that there is a Sound out posting in this location," Tsunade unrolled a map for the two fighters, instantly switching into serious boss mode the second that both of them began to pay acute attention. She watched both of their eyes drink up the map that was laid out before them, watched as their minds ran through all possible routes on how to get there, what areas to avoid, and just how to attack the out post. Just as good Leaf ninja should… "There has been reports of local children going missing, meaning that there is a strong possibilities that there is also possible Orochimaru related links there. He could be using this area to find a new host body until…" _

"_The Uchiha is ready for transfer," Saiyuki finished with a wrinkle of her nose. She had never gotten to know any of the Uchiha before what had happened with the now missing nin's of the clan. All she knew was that there were two S-ranked criminals bearing the Sharingan and there was hardly a damn thing she could do about it, that and… the one known as Sasuke was getting stronger by the day from ANBU leaks she'd managed to find. _

"_That can't be good…" Kiba stated and sniffed at the air as if he could sense out Sasuke or the snake sanin just from the map. _

_Tsunade nodded her agreement, lacing her fingers before her while eyeing her sake. The second this mission debriefing was over she would get into a bit of a binge if all went well with her assistant. "Yes, it seems that he's getting desperate these days. He's been spreading out his hold, trying to expand Sound borders, and with each new town, another child goes missing, or more reports of mutilated bodies tainted by foreign and forbidden jutsu turns up. Luckily, this outcropping is a relatively small one, and only a small band of Sound shinobi that look to be only lower ranking jounin with one leader in the high A-rank, like that of Genma or Kurenai. However, because of Orochimaru's desperation and the brazenness of this little band, we cannot be completely sure of the situation. Things may arise that make the job difficult, deadly even… if you sense you are in over your heads do not hesitate to come back, do you hear me? This is a dangerous mission, you could very well die on this one…" _

"_So that's why you're sending two of us," Saiyuki stated and ran her fingers over the map, a scowl on her face. "You're right, Tsunade-chan… I could not have done this alone, this is beyond even Lord Hyuuga-sama going solo… though, still, it would be wiser to send someone of higher rank," now her voice was not tinted with ire or disgrace, or anything that Tsunade and Kiba were still expecting from her. Now it was with concern. _

_Kiba shifted from one foot to the other, his outfit's fabric rubbing together. He watched Saiyuki very carefully a moment before returning his stare back to the Hokage who was running her fingers up and down the sides of her nose. "I'm afraid that's not possible… none of the other jounin are as good a match for this particular mission as you two are. Plus, I hear that you two have been sparring everyday for the past two months, so you should know each others moves just about perfectly by now. Your abilities to track and to sense out enemies will enhance with the other and you will be able to get back safe and sound. Your strengths will play off each other." _

"_I don't want him getting hurt because he's a chuunin," Saiyuki stated more firmly, her eyebrows coming to knit together tightly. Kiba stared at her in mild awe as did the fifth. There was every chance that Kiba could get killed because he was merely a chuunin in this mission, there was a very good chance that because of his inexperience in a jounin setting such as this he could freak or freeze or otherwise get himself killed. She didn't want the weight of a fellows death or of his injury upon her shoulders. _

_Kiba broke the tense silence that had been building up in the room. He knew just as well as the others what this mission was entailing, and that there was an excellent chance he'd get hurt, then again, who didn't being a ninja? "I'm right here ya know. And besides," Kiba's eyes hardened as the two partners locked eyes, each of their stares steely and earnest instead of competing. "This'll be a good chance to put all that training to use, huh?" _

_Saiyuki smirked and put a hand on her hip, her leg band glinting the Konoha seal in the sunlight filtering through the windows while the entire village seemed to hush at this statement. "Yea, guess it is," she had said with a small chuckle that belied her nerves and qualms of this coming fight. But they would cross that bridge when they came to it. _

The sun was now up and blazing down upon the now steadily thinning forest. The two shinobi that were jumping swiftly through the branches, from rough surface to rough surface, traveled at a fast, swift pace. They were little more than blurs, intent on getting to their mission destination soon. It would soon be noon time, meaning that the enemy forces would be in full swing, they had to be careful from here on out if they had any hope of survival.

Just as suddenly as they had set out, little more than blurs of chakra laden feet and dark threaded fabrics, they came to a stop next to one another on separate branches, their eyes narrowed into slits thin and hard. Kiba sniffed at the air, his clawed hands holding onto the bark of the tree with little difficulty, detecting the soft delectate scents around him. While his hyperactive nose was at work Saiyuki hissed and allowed her pupils to fall low and hard into her amber, becoming large black slashes while her breathing became more and more even. Energy was pushed into the orbs and her already increased sight was heightened to where they pierced through the forest for a good mile a head easily.

"Don't smell anything, at least not if you count some deer and a rabbit as enemies," Kiba stated under his breath, his voice grating and gravely.

Saiyuki slouched forwards on her branch, feeling along the hard surface while forcing more of her energy into her families definitive trait. Satisfied she let out a small grunt and leaned back, chancing a glance at her partner. "I don't see anything, so that means we're safe for the time being…" she stated and came to a crouch position much akin to a frogs, her bound up hair falling over her shoulders. It had been a few days since they had last run into the enemy that had been stationed within Konoha boundaries, sentries no doubt. Their presence had sent a cold chill down each of their spines in turn… but this lack of activity after running into nearly three daily was all the more chilling and disturbing. Had they somehow not gotten to the foe in time and they had somehow signaled ahead of coming intruders? If that was the case the jounin and accompanying chuunin were in for quite the fight.

"What do you make of it?" Kiba asked, glancing behind him to see a large tuft of white in a tree three yards from him. Akamaru stared back while Saiyuki mulled over his question, her own eyes trailing to her panther that was in the branch above her, swishing his thick and mighty tail in agitation.

"Not sure… it can either be a good thing, meaning we have the element of surprise and they go down much smoother, and just how I prefer it… Or, it can be a bad thing, very bad, that they got a red flag through to the camp and we're walking straight into an ambush… Either way, Saito has been restless for some days now," Saiyuki observed and for once wished that her animal would speak to her. For some reason the mountain of pitch dark had shut himself off from her, only communicating through eyesight or glancing touches. This alone would have alarmed her, even if she was not on a mission.

Kiba nodded slowly, nicking his lower lip with his enhanced fangs. "How many do you figure is in the encampment?" he asked as quietly as he could.

"Dunno," Saiyuki said with a snarl and a light curse under her breath. "The fact that we encountered so many on the road doesn't bode well, that's for damn sure. I wish we had more info on this one, I feel naked without a number rating," the cat nin said with a grit of her teeth. "That way I could store the needed chakra, but this way… I've had to build it up over the last several days."

"Yea, I know what you mean." Kiba sat down against his branch and dangled his feet, now turning his pack around from his back and started to fish silently through it. This close to the enemy they couldn't afford any loud snaps or anything of the sort.

"Hungry, dog breath?" Saiyuki asked with as much humor she could muster within her voice. She turned to see Kiba already with a mouthful of a rice ball, the white grains sticking to the sides of his mouth while Akamaru was pawing silently at his master for a piece. Kiba shot her a dark look and when all she did was sneer at him she settled against the trunk of her tree and fished for her lunch as well. They would need to be fully fueled in this battle or they were just asking to be killed. Especially the taijutsu master who was going over every move she knew time and again.

They sat and ate in silence, each of them contemplating over the coming battle. Kiba silently wondered just how much of Saiyuki's hidden jutsu's he was going to see during this fight. He could sense from her that she was going to go all out, that this was a mission that called for the things that she wouldn't teach him, and that alone had him quivering in anticipation. He would admit that the second she said she wouldn't be teaching him her families secret techniques his interest had been captured and ever since he'd been trying to get her to at least show him some of it. But every time the cat nin had shot him down and continued on with the normal taijutsu training that, day by day, was starting to look suspiciously familiar. Where he had seen it before though the dog shinobi couldn't figure out… Meanwhile, Saiyuki was breaking off a piece of bread for her large cat by her side, watching as he wrinkled his nose in distaste but took it all the same, growling under his breath at her.

There's not much I can do with this one. I can sense that the ninja up ahead are stronger by far than the ones that we encountered along the way here. She glanced sidelong at Saito, the black panther having settled to a slothful drape on his branch while his pure eyes bored into her soul. There was no choice, at some point she would have to access the Rank S jutsu's in her arsenal. She just hoped that Kiba wasn't stupid enough to try to copy them. Her style was something only the Haraku clan could perform. That or someone with a Sharingan, but since the only three with remaining weren't around here…

"You're not gonna tell her… right?" Saiyuki snapped out of her musing, going over each and every move, every hand sign that would be needed for the higher levels and glanced over Kiba. The opposite was frowning, his eyes narrowing and the red markings under his eyes wrinkling slightly around the slender orbs. Akamaru had stopped his drooling over Kiba's sandwich and was now peering at her intently as well, his ears raised in curiosity.

"Tell who what?" Saiyuki said with a furrowed look, her lips pursing in confusion. Then it struck her and she laughed. "Oh, that!!" Kiba growled warningly at the cat kunochi as she crossed her arms over her semi flat chest, her mouth pulling into a cocky sneer. "Why shouldn't I tell Hinata you have the hots for her? She should at least have a warning…" she practically purred at the male across from her.

"You wouldn't dare!" Kiba barked, his anger flaring at being teased this way. He'd kept his secret emotions for Hinata hidden for this long, he couldn't' have them revealed because of this damn bitch wanting to mess with his head! Saiyuki's smirk broadened and her amber eyes said all that needed to be uttered, what made him think that she would not tell Hinata? With that Kiba let loose a feral snarl and plunged at the cat woman before him, his eyes widening to the point of almost insanity while his teeth gnashed together his warning.

Saiyuki instantly tensed at the sudden lunge and was in a crouch in a heartbeat, her fingers digging clear into the tree. She grunted when Kiba ran headlong into her, smacking her back into the trees trunk, blinded by rancor and fear. They instantly started to exchange blows, punch for punch, kick for kick, bite for snarling bite, uncaring of their mission that called for the utmost quietude. The female let out a cry of surprise when her claws lost grip and the two were sent tumbling out of the tree. However, Kiba continued his assault, so when they hit the ground with a loud thud, sending the fallen greenery around them scattering, they continued to roll around and yelp and shout at one another.

Kiba snarled when her fist almost made contact with his head, her form now towering over him while her other hand had come to ball up the front of his leather jacket. He heard the earth fracture under her but didn't slow his own kick to her side, sending her plummeting into the soft earth of the forest underbelly and was atop of her in a heart beat, snarling like a wild dog and moving to return her attempted blow. "You're such a bitch!!" he howled and when he moved to punch her she caught his fist and threw him back over her head full force. He hit another tree, causing the young sapling to shudder and let loose a variety of bugs onto the combatants. He barely had time to catch his breath from becoming quickly winded when she was before him, her face now equally contorted and fierce.

"What the hell is your problem!?" she shouted and was just about to punch him hard in the middle of his face to teach him a lesson when she stopped dead in her tracks.

Kiba was about to retort when he too stopped and glanced around anxiously. The tip of his nose twitched, his nostrils flaring. The once lively forest was quiet and tense, where birds should be calling-even through their fight-there was only silence, and where the rustling of rabbits and other undergrowth creatures were supposed to dwell there was only a feel of dread. Saiyuki turned from him cautiously, her eyes slowly slitting. Her sharp eyes surveyed around them while Kiba sniffed out the enemy, his hands coming from her arm that was still gripping into his jacket once again and fishing into his kunai pouch.

"How many…?" he whispered, wanting to confirm what he already knew with the sharper eyed other.

Saiyuki shifted from his slowly, dropping him from the slightly elevated position from the weakened tree and grunted. Her eyes steadily fell upon each and every shadow, seeing the differences in the foliage where the enemy was, and strained her hearing to hear each and every breath taken. "Twelve… shit… you ready Dog Breath?" she hissed and instantly had her chakra reserves opening and pulsing into her muscles, hardening them and forcing them into the state required. If all else failed she still had the chakra gates.

"Yea," Kiba suddenly whistled and from the trees came a white blur. There was a yelp of surprise as Akamaru fell into the brush behind them, then a splash of red on the green beneath them, the tangy scent of fresh blood rushing into the open.

"Saito!" Saiyuki shouted, and just as the words fell from her lips the other eleven ninja came from their hiding spots, all holding out swords or some kind of elite weapon. The black shadow came crashing down from the trees and fell onto one unsuspecting jounin, claws out and maw reaming into his neck hard.

The jounin female and chuunin male hardly had time to form the next plan when the rest charged at them all at once. They were dressed in the uniform of the sound, all jounin and from the looks of it, all intent on killing the Konoha trespassers. Saiyuki and Kiba both let out harmonized growls, lowering into fighting stances and then were up into the clashing frenzy, ready for the fight for their lives.

Saiyuki pushed her way into the middle of her half, her legs tucked under her while his hands reached out into the air, readying her attack momentum. She twisted around in the air, dodging a kunai, then quickly spun in a rabid circle, kicking up leaves with the force of the spin and sending chakra sparking out from the assault. "Konoha Hurricane!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, feeling her foot connect with someone's unfortunate jaw. The sound jounin was sent flying backwards, blood spewing from his mouth as the kunochi landed with a soft thud. She quickly vaulted back on her hands as the other four threw kunai and shuriken at her.

Kiba blocked the best he could, it had been a long time since he had seen an actual front line where he had to fight for his life like this. He grunted and spun his fist around, charging it with as much energy as he could. At the close range contact his fist made contact with the third enemy, sending him to the ground with a sickening crack while a groan came from his lips. The dog nin had just enough time to jump back and perform a few quick hand signs, allowing his chakra to jolt into his body and his claws to elongate. He felt the rush of the power and all things seemed to slow down in his vision.

Saito roared loudly as Saiyuki spun through the air, bringing kunai into the webbing of her fingers and landed hard onto his back, her hair floating around her face. There was little need for communication as the black panther began to charge, his mistress atop of his back and her now kunai armed hands at her sides. They separated the instant someone would have drove a sword into the beasts chest only to have his face filled with slashing sharp metal, biting into his soft flesh and letting the red come spraying out onto the ground and half onto Saiyuki's face. However, she was just about to jump away from the dying body when a foot met with her back hard, much harder than she thought it would have, and she was soon face first into the ground, her spine letting out a disturbing crack. Pain surged up into her head and fingers, making her vision blur against the brown, her breathing now coming in shuddering pants. The hell was that!?

She rolled over on the ground when another blast hit the ground, her ears now ringing with the sound and wind that passed a mere inches by her. She winced and brought her arms into an X, her eyes wide with surprise and fear as the same blast came down upon her, then connected with a fist laden with what looked to be a massive gauntlet with holes and spikes coming out of it. She heard something within her wrist snap and let out a small snarl when her fingers began to lose their strength, the chakra steadily receding from the area of the break. "Fuck…"

"Like that?" the sound ninja above her sneered. Before she could respond there was a rush of black and muscle and the one that had dared to break something of hers was met hard in the side with her loyal charge.

She rolled over onto her side, her back still shivering with agony but the pain slowly subsiding. Her amber eyes fell upon her panther that was gripping into the gauntlet hard with his massive maws, blood drizzling from where his steel like teeth had shattered the weapon. His claws were gripping into the prone and screaming ninja under him, holding him down and slowly starting to rip into his chest with a vigor, his heavy weight too much for the human. Saiyuki barely had time to think about the gash on Saito's side that was making his black fur shimmer with inner fluids for she had to summersault quickly backwards when a swords edge would have come in contact with her neck and sliced her open. The element of surprise would have helped in this situation!!

Kiba and Akamaru both landed from their deadly spins, their minds reeling from the vortex attack, and glanced around at the now three dead ninja at their feet, blood rippling from their misplaced limbs. The white dog snarled and ran full force at the other enemy, his fur coated in red and standing on end, ready for a full fight. His owner ran full force on all fours as well, right next to his partner, and both ran into the remaining twos guts. Though not without price were the enemy sent stumbling backwards, having learned the two's strategy the Sound Shinobi each dug a kunai into their opponent before letting the force overtake them.

Akamaru let out a whimper, loud and high, as he stepped back, the red marring his now white coat. Kiba hissed low in his throat as he glanced over to the dog then to the man that had hurt him, his vision turning red and his temper flaring. How dare anyone hit his dog like that!!

In a heartbeat the messy brown haired youth was before the offending ninja, his fist pulled back and pure energy sparking off of it. With his strike the other shinobi fell down, his jaw flying in the opposite direction and his body making a hollow noise upon the ground. The dog nin didn't have time to live in his victory over the scum before he was pinned on the ground and a kunai pressing at his throat, his eyes wide as the Sound Shinobi sneered down at him. They were in deep shit…

Saiyuki brought her leg crashing down onto one of her opponents skull, having snagged his arm within her grasp. The weak bone instantly gave way, crashing in around his brain and causing both blood and drool to fall from his lax lips. The jounin let the dead man go and was charging the other, her eyes narrowed while her fingers were now adorned with long, vicious claws. She punched and kicked at the man, flipping and flaring around him, her blows glancing and hardly without force. He was so distracted with making sure her devastating blows didn't land that he didn't see the blur of black come up upon him, and before he could react his leg was being crushed in strong and malicious maws, breaking the bone and causing him to crumple under the force. When he looked up, his eyes wide from between his mask and head band, there were two of the cat nin charging him. His last view was of the glinting of blades, blinding pain in his chest and neck, before he passed away.

The cat nin's landed opposite of each other, glancing at the slumping body with disdain. There were large canyon's of damage and flesh within his shielded chest and his head was hanging on barely for a strip of flesh and muscle. Saito let go of the form to slink down to the ground, his breathing heavy and body covered in nicks and gashes, his muscles twitching with exhaustion. Saiyuki looked the worse for wear as well as she stood among her pile of bodies, her chest heaving and her kunai dripping red onto the sullied blades of grass beneath her. She heard a scream behind her, a dogs fangs crushing together, then a wet gurgle, and she knew that the final of Kiba's enemies were finished as well.

Kiba came up to a struggling standing, pushing off the body that had its throat ripped out by Akamaru, feeling the bruise forming on his neck. He glanced over to where the black mass of muscle and the cat nin were at, both standing with their back to him and both panting hard and heavy. It took him only a second to assess the damage that had been done during the raid. Saiyuki was covered in sweat and there were numerous cuts along her arms and hands, defensive wounds, and there was even a small amount trickling down from the middle of her back. Her wrist was swelling as well, turning a dark blue and black with a ring of green around it, informing him instantly that she had gotten something broke in the scuffle. He was in no better shape either. He had wounds in much the same places as she did, along his arms and even some on his face from not dodging quickly enough. Both of their animals it seems had been a little too involved in the fight…

"Well that was fun!" Kiba said with a mock sense of cockiness, rolling his shoulders and walking towards the other two. Saiyuki glanced over her shoulder, her eyes still hard and surprisingly old looking, her form set firmly and still giving off the sense of Bloodlust.

"I suppose," she hissed and glanced around cryptically. Kiba raised his eyebrows at that. What did she mean by that? "Stay on guard…" she muttered quickly.

"Why? We just trounced those guys. It's not like they'll be stupid enough to send more men after us," Kiba said with his arms behind his head. There was a burning in his side that informed him that he had broken or badly bruised a rib. A trip to Sakura-chan when they got back would be in order…

"Just do as I say, damn it!" Saiyuki snapped at him, turning to him with a wild look on her face. She reached down into her kunai pouch and drew out a few shuriken, her eyes hard and unrelenting. There was something not right about this. They had encountered men all along their trip. Then they had been sent a small wave of shinobi. All in all she counted twenty four that they had encountered just on the road here. No one sent that many men after someone that quickly, it was tactical suicide. Something was not sitting right with her, though she couldn't pin point it.

She heard Kiba let out a flustered growl and listened to him as he walked around the clearing, kicking random bodies to make sure of their death. She glanced down to Saito, checking his injured body over, and wondered vaguely why they had gone after the two animals of the group so hardcore considering that the two ninja were more of a threat. Then it hit her. She turned to Kiba, her eyes widening and her slit becoming little more than a sliver, watching his route then to the bushes around him. There, in waiting, were at least four more ninja, all in tight dark purple uniforms and masks adorning their faces. They had shielded their chakra flawlessly, hidden their presence from the two lower ranking enemies, and were now about to spring the trap! SHIT! "Kiba, move!" Saiyuki shouted at the top of her lungs and was racing across the clearing they had created in an instant.

"What? Why?" Kiba stopped his kicking of one particularly crushed body, one of the female's opponents, and glanced over his shoulders. He froze upon seeing her dashing towards him, glancing wordlessly behind him. His guts suddenly seemed to drop from his body and when he turned his gaze to the bushes next to him four Sound ANBU came out of them, each holding out completed hand signs and energy surging forth into the coming attacks. Akamaru was too far away and too weak to help, and Kiba's feet felt like they were glued into place. What… what was wrong with him!?

"Damn it Kiba move it!!!" a scream suddenly entered into his mind and before he knew what was happening the world was falling in a flash of green and brown. He hit the ground with a gag, something heavy and hard pinning him to the ground. The forest was lit up with a blinding light and the sound seemed to disappear from around them, leaving the dog boy deaf and blind to what had just happened.

Saiyuki called out as she tackled Kiba to the ground just in time for the brunt of her back to receive the all star treatment of the Sound ANBU attacks. It burned and ripped at her back, causing blood and tissue to fly everywhere while her ears seemed to be being ripped apart from the inside out. She let out a strangled cry, her sensitive eyes closing tight and her chest heaving with agony, the sound invading every inch of her and making her very bones quake in harmony to the assault. Beneath her she could feel Kiba tense and roll over slowly, the chakra flaming at the air around them and causing the leaves to shrivel and dry up away from the force.

When the dust and sound returned to the world, sight coming into the dazed and bloodshot amber, jounin raised her head to be met with the masked forms of the ANBU ops unit, all with their swords drawn and almost seeming to leer down at her. Kiba shifted under her and stared up at Saiyuki when the light faded to see her with her arms by his head, her form towering over his and her head raised up to meet the stares of their enemy. He suddenly felt weak and useless, seeing how her shirt dripped off of her in tatters from where the jutsu had hit her along her spine, he realized how close to death he had come.

"Sai… why did you do that? You shouldn't have done that…" Kiba whispered hoarsely. He saw small red rivers falling from where the burn was and winced inwardly. "You hate me."

She turned to him, a small smirk playing on her lips. Her amber eyes were glittering with pain and at the same time numbness, her hair slowly unraveling from their twin bindings. "Idiot, if I hate you would I have done that? We're… friends," she said with a slight roll of her eyes at the corny situation. Then, she was off of him, coming to a struggling standing.

The ANBU all circled her, ignoring the weaker chuunin nearby, opting to get the larger threat out of the way first. They closed rank around her, all of their weapons drawn and each giving off a murderous energy. She would die here today if it was up to them. Saiyuki glanced over her shoulders to each and every one of them, slowly gauging her options while cursing at her torn up back. There was no choice, one of the gates had to open and she would have to make Saito fight with her one last time on this mission.

"Saito," Saiyuki snapped and instantly the creature was up. He knew what was coming. However, Kiba did not, and watched as Saiyuki jumped into the air away from the others that had charged at her the second she had formulated her plan. She put her fingers into a flurry of signs and winced at the pain in her wrist. "First gate, open!" she hissed. Instantly, there was something within her that snapped and there was a pulse of pure strength and power that came hard into her body. It pushed into muscles from the center of her chest, giving her network a boost and making her eyes turn into a black white with the power. She vaguely heard someone swear, another one shout at the others to get her while she was still weak, then all she heard was the roaring in her ears. The roaring of the chakra taking firm hold and informing her it was no or never!

"Higher Haraku Style!!" Saiyuki shouted loudly. She reached out a blind hand and took hold of Saito's fur from somewhere in the dark. "Mark of the Great Beast!!"

Kiba watched with an open mouth at the speed of which all of this took place. She was barely off of the ground and in the air when she had called the first chakra gate open and then, before the ANBU were even within a yard of her, Saito was at her side, his form hulking and curled from the great height. She'd taken grip onto the dark fur while the pure chakra bubble that he had seen form around Lee during his access of the Gates let off light and pure bolts. And with the finish of her jutsu all in the forest seemed to be alive with sound and rushing, wind running up to meet her in her attack as Haraku Saiyuki accessed the attack she had refused to teach him. Her skin started to bleed into an unnerving dark bluish purple, her hair was blown out from their bindings while her muscles seemed to grown and pulsate with the power. Saito's eyes turned into a dull, lifeless looking green and his body went limp in her grasp. When the girls body was completely covered in the disturbing color and even her eyes bleeding into a glowing amber and green combination, the bubble vanished and they were falling down towards the ANBU.

Saiyuki fell from the air with her legs tucked under her and her arms above her head, her mouth twisting into a snarl while her fangs fell over her lower lip. The ANBU all started when the transformed youth was coming at them, her now lifeless panther falling from the sky beside her. Two of the hunter nin's tried to run from her in the air, flipping back and trying to get out of harms way, but her hand reached out and hooked into them with long, razor sharp claws. She snarled inhumanely and brought their two heads crashing together, to where blood and grey matter sprayed from the fractures. She flipped herself and the dazed men with fatal head contusions over in the air, then landed hard upon their chests when they hit the ground, breaking all the bones in their ribcages and crushing any life they may have had within in them. When the other two enemies landed beside her, staring at the mutilated bodies with equal horror, she turned to them with the same glowing eyes, letting go of the dead men beneath her and walking from their crushed chests.

She snarled then let out an inhuman roar from her throat, her eyes becoming narrow to the points of slits. It was over in a few seconds, Kiba realized with a blink, for in that matter the other ninja were against trees, holes in their chests from where Saiyuki had punched them hard and with enough burning chakra to sear right through them and keep them to the tree with their bodies fused into the bark. He felt his jaw drop open in awe of the power and force behind the attacks, how quickly it had happened… and just what had happened to her panther. He glanced over to the creature in pity, hearing Akamaru whimper at his side from this new form of Haraku.

But just as suddenly as the blackish blue skin had come it faded away. Saiyuki fell to her knees, her eyes closing tightly and her body starting to shiver from chakra extension, her entire form exhausted. She fell to her hands and knees, shaking her head at having to use the higher up levels of her families jutsu, then glanced over to Saito as he slowly began to breath once again. With a final burst of what little energy remained she glanced over to Kiba to see him staring at her with wide, confusion filled eyes. This would take explaining… but that would wait until later. Saiyuki passed out onto the blood soaked ground, fading into sleep as the dog and his master still stared in shock laced horror at what had happened.


	10. Chapter 10 Danger around corners

**Chapter nine: **

**Danger around every corner**

Saiyuki rolled her shoulders stiffly as she walked out of the Konoha hospital for the third time that month. She was grateful that this time her injuries were only superficial, a broken wrist was mended without much thought for someone as skilled as Sakura, and a few cuts and bruises would go away on their own. Even Saito's injuries had been little more than dramatic, with only a few deep cuts and a few to the bone markings there was little wrong with him and he was already waiting at the house to be fed. All and all, minus the visit to the damn white box that smelled almost as bad as Kiba, it had been an all right day.

She glanced up and smirked to herself to see Shino leaning against a nearby tree, seeming to be staring down at an ant pile. "Shino-kun," she greeted with humor in her voice. It struck her as odd that the quiet bug ninja had been hanging around her more and more, well… really it was more of whenever she went to the hospital to get stitched up he'd be waiting to make sure she got home safe after what happened last time. Or he was coming to pick Kiba up after practice and haul him off to wherever he was supposed to be. Okay, she really didn't see him often enough to have it classify in other girls dictionaries, but she was used to solitude and isolation. To have someone hang around her was something she was not used to yet.

He shifted his gaze from the fascinating ants and watched as she walked over to him. She had changed in the hospital into more casual black sweat pants and an actual jounin vest, but other than that there was still the violently red turtle neck and the bandages that wound up and down her arms. "You are never uninjured," Shino observed quickly when she was finally by his side.

Saiyuki laughed outright at that and glanced herself over. She shrugged casually then leaned against the side of the tree, next to Shino, and glanced up at the sky with a pursed look. "Being a fighter does that to you. I get injured training," she stated as if it was common knowledge.

Shino had to nod to that. All Taijustu masters constantly had cuts and scrapes upon them; it was natural for them to be in almost constant pain of some kind. He wondered how they could deal with such consistency… then again, to them, it must be normal and the pain must not even register after a while. He slipped into silence as he watched the ants scurry to and fro from their home, his jacket and glasses keeping his blank expression hidden. Ninja were like ants. They were always working, always fighting, struggling, to survive. They followed orders to a T and they never once questioned it unless it involved their survival, and even then, most did it anyway. They were loyal to a fault to their leader, they were strong, and they were individuals while at the same time conforming into one mass of pure prowess that would cow any opponent foolish enough to challenge them. The Taijutsu masters were like the soldier ants, big and strong, intimidating with their massive pincers and brute force. The smaller, more tactically inclined others were the Ninjutsu masters, who used their surroundings to ambush enemies and use the environment to their advantage. Finally there was the Genjutsu masters who used the element of illusion and trickery to win a fight, like bathing in the scent of a falling enemy then invading a nest and killing the queen. It was funny how closely the lives of the shinobi and those of the animal world coincided.

Saiyuki raised her eyebrows at the intensity at which he was staring at the ant hill, her hands coming from her pockets. There he goes again, she thought with a small smirk on her lips, into his own little world that no one else is allowed into. She had not known Shino long, hell, she still didn't 'know' him, but she could tell when he was zoned out or not. He got this… well, it was hard to explain. All of his energy around him seemed to get colder when he zoned out, he seemed more distant and farther away than anyone could reach. She envied that in him.

"How'd it go?" Shino suddenly broke the silence that they had slipped into just as she was staring up at the leaves of the tree in her own thought. She started and glanced over to him as he lifted his stare from the bugs beneath him, having done his fair share of life thought for the day.

"How'd what go?" she asked slowly, not tracking with the sudden conversation.

"The mission," Shino reminded.

Saiyuki scoffed and glanced back at her accursed second home. If she never had to go to the blasted hospital again it would be too soon… When she could feel Shino's eyes on her, telling her silently to tell him what had happened to make her stay at that place, she snorted ungracefully at the thought of having to access one of the highest levels of the taijutsu. "Good enough to put me in there. But the mission was a success," was all she was allowed to say. Missions were to be kept of the utmost secrecy, the only ones to know of an A-rank mission, or really any mission, was the Hokage or assigning officer and the ninja performing the required task. But that didn't mean that people followed that rule… far from it. Most people liked to gossip about their assignment. Luckily, Saiyuki was not one of them.

"Kiba told me about it," Shino stated simply.

Saiyuki's eyebrow twitched instantly and she wheeled on the bug nin, her mouth clenching hard. "That irresponsible little prick!! How dare her go about blabbing about an A-rank mission we almost get _killed_ on! How stupid can he possibly be? I take a full blown S-rank attack for him and what does he do?? Goes and tells anyone he can about the mission and how the Sound is getting closer to the borders of the village!!" Before Shino could fully raise his hand to stop her sudden rant, startled by what he was seeing and realizing just how short a fuse that the cat nin had, she had thrown her arms up in the air in frustration. She continued, unaware of the bug shinobi's sudden alarm, "does he not realize that alarm and panic that would send through the ranks, stupid dog!! The shinobi and kunochi already have enough on their plate without informing them the war is coming closer, not to mention the nonin will go berserk with fear! There'll be riots in the street, anarchy; if the Hokage doesn't act soon the entire village will be up in arms and pissing itself! I could kill him!!"

Shino raised his eyebrows at how quickly her mind went from bad to worse to end of days bad. He was starting to wonder just how she had gotten so far up in the rankings with a temper that flared like this, but then passed it off as her being… female… and from just coming out of the hospital. "He only told Hinata and I," he corrected. Saiyuki froze in her storming around the tree, muttering several ways she was going to kill Kiba under her breath. She turned to him with wide amber eyes with the pupils returning to a normal human round and her mouth opening up in shock.

She then laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed of her actions. What the hell had gotten into her? Somehow, someway, Kiba got under her skin in ways that no one else did. She was calm cool and collected, like the animal of her families crest, but it seemed the more she was around Kiba the more her emotions raged out of control. That had been made painfully clear back during their mission. Seriousness reigned in on her features and Shino immediately noted the change, watching as she shifted and turned her stare out to the streets of the village. "That doesn't change anything though…" she whispered.

Shino said nothing, though gave off the distinct feeling into the air that he was interested in what she had to say. He didn't bother with the gnawing in his chest now, wasn't disturbed by it, though he still did not know what it was he was starting to like it on some level. He'd been isolated from civilization for so long now that he would put up with discomfort on any level to be near someone and to talk with them. It lessened the burden that had been plopped onto his shoulders from a young age and made him feel not so freakish, not so ugly, and made him hope that one day he could be normal with friends and people that didn't care about the bugs under his skin. Saiyuki was the first stranger he had ever met that first thing that had come out of her mouth was that she didn't see the big deal and actually respected the Aubrame's method of jutsu. He was in her debt…

"They're still coming closer. This is the furthest reaching embankment of enemy soldiers ever recorded near Konoha. They're getting smarter, faster, they're plotting out our weak points and readying an attack, I can feel it. And I bet I know who's at the head of this little surge…" she snapped bitterly and crouched down, still staring out at the streets. Right now, with the sun hanging over them, she could picture the buildings burning, the blood running down the streets, and the stench of smoke and death choking those that were still alive. She didn't question that there was a good chance that Konoha could lose should the Sound continue to rally those against the village to attack, the only question now was… how long did the village have before it came true?

She shifted and cast her gaze up at Shino who was staring down at her. That familiar tension rose between them and she found herself for the first time mentally wondering what the hell it was between them that had her stomach twisting like it was. She frowned intently, her mind running over the scene over and over again, picturing now among the dead her only friends, only remaining family, and found herself on the verge of breaking down. "I've lost so much, I cannot lose this too," she whispered with a scowl and was up in a flash, walking down the pathways to her house and to another fitful nights rest.

Shino furrowed his brows at this, his mouth coming into a set line. She did not get to see his first readable look in weeks as she walked off with her back to him, her long hair banded once again and her tanned skin blaring in the bright heavenly orb above. He pondered on this, wondering just what she had lost that would make her say such a thing. Then, all at once, he realized that he truly didn't know anything about the brunette woman that was as hard as a brick wall and apparently just as impenetrable. What it would take for her to open up to someone, he wondered. What could possibly have happened to make her become so intensely solitary?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The rain was cold and icy as it fell in sheets from the inky black sky over head. Gloom and doom filled the day, shifting into the once green grass with a haze that was almost suffocating. The trees, heavy with rain and this damnable atmosphere, sagged under the pressure, creaking in the small clearing just outside of the village. Atop of a large hill with stretching sides that sloped down to the streets and entry way to the proud Village Hidden in the Leaves, stood the sculpted, shinning, ebony stone that everyone in the entire city at one point came to see. And so it was that a lone jounin stood before the stone with hands shoved into pockets and unheeding to the cold down pour surrounding.

Saiyuki's golden eyes were harsh and unrelenting as she raked her gaze over and over the stone. There were two particular names that she had come to honor, only… now that she was here staring at their engravings she only felt resentment and sorrow, not pride and patriotic honor that came with having ones relatives name carved upon the impressive slab. There was little this rock could offer. The warmth of a mother and a father were gone and all that remained were their names within this fucking black void that seemed to suck up all of her emotions every time she was here.

It made her feel less than. It made her feel horrible. It made her feel weak. And her latest mission where she had to access the forbidden upper level of the Haraku style only proved that fact. She was the weakling of the clan, she had no one to teach her any more and now she was stationary, she was sedentary, she was treading water. She may put up a front, a powerful one at that, that showed she could and would take on anything and anyone, and she supposed for the most part that worked. But she was nothing compared to the likes of others on her squad, others that were by far more powerful than she, and that alone was enough to wrench her heart. If they were still alive she wouldn't be in this mess. She would be getting stronger, she would be getting faster, her families secret jutsu's would be passed down to her and then she would be worthy of the rank of jounin.

But they had left and with them the knowledge that she needed. The warmth the kindness and love that she craved were gone and now she was alone in the rain, merely staring at their names and not their smiling and comforting faces. It was only when Saiyuki came here that she felt so alone… so very alone. The darkness of the gloom around her seemed to seep into her core and make her shiver from the oppression, her mind screaming out in violation. Water dripped off of her bangs that were now almost plastered to her face, and her clothing was heavy and dark. Her entire body felt like it weighed four times its normal weight and refused to move. She had had enough of coming here, of mourning their passing, but every time she swore she would never come here again, that she wouldn't cry for them, she found her feet running as fast as they could against grass and pavement to get here and make sure they were gone.

Haraku Masamaru and Haraku Itsunu… two decorated heroes of the village. When in reality she'd been there at their death and they were far from hero's. They were nothing more than victims of an ambush at their house, they had little time to fight off the enemy and even less to shield her within a genjutsu under the table so that they would not find her as well. She did not know to this day who it was that had come and why he had sought to kill her parents, but… "I will kill him one day," she whispered hoarsely and slowly kneeled down.

Running a calloused thumb over her parent's names she shuddered and hung her head. Her heart was seeped in sorrow and despair; there didn't seem a way out of this horrible existence. Why had Kami cursed her so? Her entire existence now was for revenge, and as much as she hated it she couldn't help but to draw that conclusion.

"If you're gonna kill someone you shouldn't be out here in the rain, Saiyuki-chan," Saiyuki tensed at the familiar voice. She turned her head wearily, her eyes having black bags under them from days without sleep. She smirked lightly at the approaching form of Genma, one hand holding an umbrella above his head and the other holding a grocery bag. "You'll be too ill to kill him if you stay out here all day, again," he chided when he was at her side.

"There's nothing for me at home," she stated with no small snap in her voice. She turned back to the grave site of the thousands that had died for their village and thought it an injustice her parents names were on this memorial. "They don't deserve it…"

"They died for the village, they deserve it as much as any other ninja on there," he added sternly. He did not like it when she started to talk this depressingly. Not only did it bring him down but he knew the more she thought on this the more she was dredged deeper into the darkness of her own mind and heart. He was concerned that at the rate she was going, no matter how intensely loyal she was to the village, she would leave and seek out her own way of getting stronger. And then, revenge. There were eerie similarities between her and a certain missing teenager.

She scoffed and hung her head again to stare down at the water laden grass. The only sound in the small clearing for a long time was the thrumming of the rain upon the soaked ground and the groaning of the uncomfortable trees. This down pour seemed a prefect setting for such mourning, she concluded with a bitter grin to herself. "They died in a moment of weakness. A shinobi needs to always be alert to their surroundings; they were reckless. They were home and thought that they were safe, when he had really just been waiting for them to get home. I will never make that mistake… to say that they died for the village is a gross overestimate of their loyalty," she whispered. She didn't want to see the disappointed look on Genma's face when she said that. But she could feel it rippling off of his form and could hear it in the way that the was now shifting from one foot to the other.

"Sai, that's not right," he admonished. "Even ninja make mistakes, we're all human after all. They gave their lives to protect you, they used up precious chakra they could have used against him to shield you… why do you hate them this much?" he asked softly, his senbon miraculously missing from his teeth. There were only a few moments where he didn't' have it there, and this was one of those. A moment where pure seriousness was needed in order to help out a friend, or in this case, a little sister figure he'd been taking care of since the day he had pulled her from under that table and taken her home to his place to battle the ones that had killed her parents. She was teetering again, like she did every year, and it was once again up to him to bring her back. But age was making it harder every time, the older she got the more independent, and the more she strayed from the shield of the leaves.

Saiyuki bit her lower lip hard to where her fangs drew blood from the soft flesh. She cast her gaze back at Genma and he noted the intensity of her stare. She didn't know what to think of her parents, and it was never as clear as when she was before the memorial, bearing her heart and soul to a cold rock that only had her parents name, not their love, and not their caring. "They left me alone…"

"You're not alone, Sai, and the sooner you realize that the better it will be for you. Hell, I've always been here," he said with a wide grin at her. Saiyuki smiled at that, her heart lightening considerably as she slowly brought herself up to standing. Though she appreciated his help… Genma didn't understand.

She turned to him with her arms behind her head, her usual cocky smirk on her face and her amber eyes set with that same glow that came whenever she was set on something. "You're a good guy, Genma," she stated and flashed a fanged grin at him before walking down the hill away from him. He scowled and watched her, with her sodden hair and clothing hanging off of her form carelessly and her chakra rolling about her body in dangerous red waves.

"Damn it, Sai," he breathed while rolling his eyes. She never was a good listener, she was like Naruto. She charged head on into something without thinking about it properly, like standing in the rain to look at a stone when she should be in one of the inside training grounds getting stronger. She refused his help whenever he offered it, and refused anyone else's as well. It would only be a matter of time before she blew up or fizzled out. Either way he didn't look forwards to the conclusion.

Saiyuki kept walking down the muddied path, downwards to the gates of the village with her head held low. There was much to think on now. There always was after visiting that damn stone. She stopped right before the large, massive gates, her eyes now staring straight up into the coming rain. The guards stared at her strangely, shifting and waiting for her confirmation that it was indeed someone of Konoha birth and rank, and when they didn't get it and all she did was stand there, they grew anxious. Then again… taijutsu masters weren't known for acting normal. Maito Gai was just an example of that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba sat with his arms across his knees on the stiff softness of his bed. The dogs were tearing around the house and he was alone for the first time in what seemed like weeks. He gnawed on his lower lip hard to the point where a metallic twinge came to his taste buds and even still he nibbled and chewed. Tonight had not gone as planned.

He had wanted to go see Hinata straight away after his mission, like he always did when he had just completed something and wanted to brag about it. So he had left Saiyuki limping at the gates much to her swearing and fuming at him, to run across town towards the Hyuuga complex. Arriving there was always a fun experience, as even the head of the clan stared at him with suspicion if he asked for the one and only heir to his family legacy, only this time the dog with rebutted with a sound 'Hinata's not here' and an explanation that she was on a top secret mission to the Snow Country. Now to top it off he was feeling slightly bad about leaving the limping Saiyuki at the gate just to go say hi to Hinata, who was in perfect health. So he had left in a sour mood, not having gotten his daily dose of the Hyuuga heir and had made his way back to the gate to see if his partner had waited for him at all, just in case. All that had been left though were small droplets of blood leading towards the hospital and the big, muddy paw prints of her panther.

He scowled and linked his arms around his knees, glaring at the bed under him. If someone had told him that him and that cat girl were going to become somewhat friends a few months ago he would have attacked them and ripped their throats out for daring to imply that he would allow that to happen. But their friendship wasn't really anything like normal. It was tense, constantly testing, it was something that was always waiting for something to happen, for someone to screw up. They were constantly fighting, bickering, and were always saying things that if it was coming from anyone else they would probably kill the other person. They weren't nice to each other in the least, so it made him wonder how on earth they had gotten to this point to begin with.

The fight from the mission flashed into his brain and he winced. He had seen how she'd been fighting, how her body moved fluidly in a way that his had yet to learn. It was from years of being trained in a specific way of fighting, from probably birth she'd been learning the art of taijutsu, and he had waited until he was in the academy. To top it off he had seen her families style in the final throws, where she had taken on her cats traits and had ripped the remaining ninja apart.

Kiba winced. _"Idiot, if I hate you would I have done that? We're… friends." _The way that her amber eyes had softened considerably at that point told him that it was the truth. She had taken a hard core energy blast just for him and would be paying for it for several days, probably having to have a chakra infused graft put onto the skin and leaving more than one scars. She had taken it like it was nothing, like defending his life was second nature and it wasn't even something to think about. He suddenly felt weak in comparison. He wasn't… he wasn't sure he would have done the same thing for her. And, he hadn't even sensed the enemy! He had just stood there, jabbering, while she yelled at him to get down. He felt inadequate in a way he had never thought he could.

So that was the difference between a jounin and a chuunin. One was more alert, one made less mistakes, they took on more responsibilities, they were the leaders in every sense of the word. No wonder he hadn't been promoted last evaluation.

Kiba growled loudly and threw his pillow against a wall, wanting it to be a shuriken and the face of one of those damn ANBU. He didn't like failure. He hated it and the fact that he had made such an amateurish mistake, one that a shinobi usually made in their genin days, only made it worse! Undoubtedly Sai now thought he was some kind of idiot and that she would stop his training, finding it useless to waste her skills in teaching someone who couldn't even see the damn enemy when they were right in front of him! This was just shit on top of shit.

"Damn, damn, damn!" he snarled and punched his fist down into his mattress before getting up, his anger at himself boiling dangerously close to the edges. He needed to get out there, to do something, he didn't care if it was raining or the fact that it was the middle of the night, he had to vent or he would explode. And so the dog nin was out of his room with little more than the snap of his window and a flurry of movement, disappearing into the waiting down pour and chilled night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba had been hoping to train at the number four training grounds outside. It was the one he was the most familiar with and knew like the back of his hand, meaning that in this inky blackness around him that he wouldn't stumble into anything as often. He had hoped that he could let off some steam at his failed performance on his first real A-rank mission with a jounin partner. But his hopes were dashed when he spotted someone already there and pounding the shit out of one of the practice dummies.

He watched as they span through the air like they weighed nothing and then slammed down their foot into the ground at full force, causing the crust to splinter and to surge up in massive stony chunks into the air. They then back flipped and charged the practice dummies close to the ground at an astonishing speed before pulling back a chakra filled hand and slamming it into the poor creatures head. With a loud rip and the smell of burning cloth the head of the dummy was obliterated and sand flew all over the practice field, showering the figure of the angered clearly jounin as they stood with their fists pummeling into the ruminants of the doll. With a snarl the person turned and kicked it hard in the center, right in the middle of the large target, and sent it, founding rock and all, careening backwards through the forest and breaking several trees in its pathway.

It was then that the rain ceased and the moon was revealed from behind the clouds, showing just who was pissed off and taking their frustrations out on the grounds. Saiyuki stood there with her head hung low and her entire body caked in mud and sand and wet grass blades. Her shoulders were heaving with uneven and tired breath though her body still stood as firm as stone in the spot, her amber eyes listlessly staring down at the crater she had made. Kiba watched as she sank down to sit on the ground, her knees by her shoulders and her claws digging into the sodden earth with bruised digits. He could tell just by looking at the damage she had done she was not happy, well that and he had made it his business to be able to tell when she was angry or not because when they trained together and she was pissed her tended to come home with something somewhere broken.

So, with hesitance he took another step forwards and cleared his throat. She glanced over to him with a slow motion, her eyes narrowed and her mouth pulling back into a small snarl at his presence. "What do you want dog?" she grumbled before turning back to stare at the hole of the forest she had managed to create.

"Well, I wanted to be the one to tear this place apart, but you kinda beat me to it," Kiba stated with a cocky smirk at her. A smirk that did not go over well because she sent a kunai whizzing his way. Luckily all the months of training with the cat nin had taught him to catch a flying weapon much faster than before and just as it would have made contact he was twirling it around one index finger, cocking an eyebrow at her. "What's got your panties in a twist?" he asked sharply. She hadn't tried to actually hurt him like that in a good three weeks.

Saiyuki couldn't help the snort of laughter that came from her chest before she tilted her head to where she could actually see him, her smirk evident. "Why do you care?" she asked curtly back.

Kiba bristled, in a way that only she could make him do. "That's a stupid fuckin' question!" he snapped at her. She raised her eyebrows at him and he knew that he had her undivided attention, that whatever was going on in her head was semi pushed down so that his words would actually sink in. It was a pressure that he found he didn't really like. He shifted from one foot to the other on the wet grass and squishy mud, running a hand on his neck while fumbling through his thoughts. Crap, he should really think things through before he acts or speaks. Now she was actually expecting him to clarify what he had said.

When he raised his eyes to hers she was holding him in place with a stare that spoke volumes. It was pinning him there, making him feel like he was the only person within miles that she was actually interested in, and it screamed of many things, but mostly it was whispering 'you' to him in his ear quietly. He shivered unknowingly before crossing his arms over his chest and grunting out, "'cause we're friends, baka-neko, that's why."

Sai took a few blinks to respond. That's when she snorted again and smiled at the dog nin, her eyebrows coming to knit together in slight skepticism. The fact that Kiba, the Kiba, the one that she had been training for so long now and vaguely understood on some level was saying something like this was enough to make her think that it was someone in disguise and to attack them. Kiba didn't say things like this. It wasn't his way. Sure it was with his team, but not with her, no way in hell was it his way with her. Finally she just scoffed and tossed her bounded hair over her shoulder, regarding him inquisitively.

Kiba shifted again, growing uncomfortable with the continual quietude that was within the ravage clearing. He had one time done the very same thing, or close to it at least, to the training ground, but had found out that there are certain chuunin that come by and clean it up and have it up and working within the day. "Don't take it the wrong way or nothing," he rumbled quietly, rubbing his neck and trying to think of a way out of what he had just said. When her amber eyes narrowed marginally and there was a small twitch in her eyebrow he winced inwardly. Fuck, it was hard to be nice sometimes!

"Digging your own grave…" she hissed lowly. She had been having a horrible week, topped off with that damn mission, and the last thing she wanted was for someone like him to come around and confuse the hell out of her. She didn't know what he was trying to say but so far she had worked out that he was admitting that they were friends and then trying to take it back. She had said she didn't like weakness, and he was almost seeping it right now. Why was he still here anyway? Hadn't she given him the message in her body language and scathing tones that she wanted him gone? What did he have to offer?

"I just meant that…" he noted how her muscles were super relaxed and how each and every single limb looked like it was going to start to disappear from the bone. She had been training for a long time, he could tell just from the way that her body was coated in mud and she was sopping wet from all of the pounding rain. He took a deep breath before stating firmly, "We're friends now, but that doesn't mean I still don't wanna beat you. One day I'm gonna get stronger than you, don't forget that. But…" Sai's body tensed slightly, "since we're friends you don't have to do everything by yourself. You saved my life after all, cat stink."

Saiyuki once again was stunned into silence. She pursed her lips before turning away from him and staring at the battered landscape before her. Kiba could feel the confusion and yet the somewhat relief flooding off of her body at that moment, and the dog nin was proud of himself on some level. He had always assumed that she hated him simply because it was in their nature too. They would always quarrel and they would never, ever get along no matter what. But the fact that she had taken that hit for him had proven that there might be some room for a powerful alliance of shinobi strength and the start of a great relationship. They had made a good team, there was no denying that… and if he was to ever work with anyone other than his current squad it would have to be her that he would want to be paired with. However grudgingly he had come to that conclusion.

A deep silence filtered between the two of them and the dog nin was content to just lean against a beaten doll, staring up at the sky and watching the darkened clouds roll by on the winds of time. They swirled threateningly but did not drop another rain and merely once again separated their way for the moon, who cast a brilliant half light upon everything. He had almost not quite caught what his companion was saying until she had shifted.

"I've never really had any friends," Saiyuki whispered with a small smirk on her face. She stared down at a clawed hand with a disappointed look. "Kids can be cruel to people that are different than them. And back then I was as different as they came, minus Naruto of course. I can't do genjutsu and I can only do enough ninjutsu to get by on my evaluations, so I would always be teased. And then, when I found out that I excelled in Taijutsu, that I was a genius in it, that was when it all really started. I was called a boy, ugly, my skin was too dark and my hair to light and my eyes weren't a normal color. It… it hurt," she growled and gritted her fangs, her amber eyes glowing eerily in the dark.

Kiba watched her out of the corner of his eye, his chin still turned upwards but his attention wholly focused. He had had no idea that her life would have been so hard. From what he had seen she was pretty damn strong, and that alone was enough to garnish respect in the ninja world. But she was right. Kids were cruel… He grimaced when he remembered how he as well used to treat the blond haired fox boy in their younger days, before he realized just how strong Naruto could be. He supposed it was somewhat the same with the girl before him, only… in a different way.

Saiyuki scoffed a second before stretching her back and wrinkling her nose in distaste. "I graduated early because of my taijutsu, and became a jounin at a young age because of it as well. I was only fourteen when I received elite status… But I'm just as much to blame for my lack of any friends as anyone else. My…" she stopped and looked almost hesitant to continue, her fangs falling over her lower lip and her fingers gripping into her tattered pants. Kiba was about to prod her to continue when she sighed and stated firmly, "my parents were murdered when I was six years old. I was caught in the house when it happened, they put me under a table and my mother, who was a genjutsu specialist, put an illusion about me to keep me hidden. Unfortunately it didn't stop me from seeing what happened, hearing what happened. Of course Saito was there with me, I wasn't completely alone, but… after that night I pushed harder and harder. Weakness was no longer an option.

"I'd find that bastard that killed my parents and I would rip him to shreds like he did to them. I trained everyday for hours on end, until I was bloodied and bruised, hardening up my skin and mind to take any kind of pain or wound. I receded from the others, kept to myself, studied, it was a nonstop world. I wouldn't change it for the world, but… I see now that doing what I did only ensured my casting out. It was stupid," she grumbled before thumping the ground with her injured knuckles.

Kiba stared at her a long moment before nodding cautiously, his mind working in overtime to say something, anything. But he realized that there was nothing to say that would make her believe that he understood when he really did. His mother and father were dead as well, he was being raised by his sisters, all three of them, and a dog pack. He had heard what had happened to them, that they had got caught up in the fight between the nine tailed fox and that the hospital had been spared because of them. But that didn't change the fact that his mother and father were gone. So instead of trying to convince her that he did, indeed, know what she was going through on more levels than she could ever know, her lifted himself from the dummy and put his hands on his hips in a way that was familiar to hers.

"Well moping about it isn't gonna make it any different!" he barked and before she could react, stunned as she was that he was indeed doing it, his fist hit with the top of her head hard enough to leave a knot. She stared at him in shock, wincing and running a thumb over the wound while the dog ninja shifted back a step, a semi cocky smirk on his face. "Past's the past, you gotta live with that. We can't change anything about it, so stop dwelling on it or you're gonna make yourself sick. Besides, you sound like a complete and total wuss anyway!"

And with that Saiyuki's vision went red and she was charging him, her fist pulled back though a small smile pulling at her snarling lips. She gave chase to the laughing Kiba, yelling out how she was going to pound him into the ground, while mulling around something in her head. Something had just changed with the two of them, but… she couldn't figure out what. What had made her tell him all those things, things she hadn't even told Genma in full confidence? What was it about Kiba that was making her quickly think of him more and more as a friend, maybe even a close one, when only three weeks ago they were at each others throats? It didn't' make sense, then again, all that really needed to was the fact that she was now chasing him through the trees at one in the morning with the intent of bodily harm. And that's all that really ever needed to matter in her opinion.


	11. Chapter 11 Violin Strings

**Sorry this is late, though not nearly as late as my Blood Berserker. This story is really hard to write because it's going to be very, very long, as you can tell with the slow progress with which the characters are getting to know each other. Trust me, it does eventually turn into a KibaXSaiyuki fic, and you are starting to see the ShinoXSaiyuki, but it's still gonna be a while. SORRY AGAIN! **

**Chapter ten:**

**Violin strings**

In order for one to know an enemy and know how to defeat them, one must first study them. Watch their every move, observe their every strength and weakness, and then exploit it and take them down in a fiery glory of battle. It was something all shinobi learned at an early age, that recon was one of the most important parts of the entire mission and one simple slip of misinformation would mean disaster for all involved. And so he watched and he learned. He didn't necessarily like what he had caught though.

It was night time again. The moon was large and hanging listlessly in the sky, lending the world its light that it in turn borrowed from the sun. Konohagakure was larger than he remembered, much larger, then again, all things seemed vaster when it was night and there were a plethora of shadows to hide in. It only made his gathering all the easier.

The moon fell upon the market district with a vengeance, out from the storms of the past few days and with glittering stars around it. And as it's silver rays caressed the leaf village they also fell upon blood, spiked blood that was messy and unruly atop a milky pale white head and body. Sea green eyes narrowed as they stared down upon the house where his newest opponent slept, ate, did everything that made a human feel alive. The large gourd upon the red heads back shifted slightly when he rolled a shoulder and crossed his arms over his steadily widening chest. Teenaged years had been kind to Gaara, he supposed. His body was getting far stronger with the development of his muscles and increasing height, his chakra pulsing was getting more under control and his demon no longer constantly howled within his ears.

But still sleep found little comfort for the vessel. So instead, he found himself newly obsessed, as he often did, with something that caught his interest. Someone, to be more specific.

"Gaara…? Why're you up here at this time of night?" Gaara mildly tensed, not to the point where his sibling that had somehow managed to sneak up on him would notice, but enough to make him curse his weakness. He turned slowly to where his teal eyes were locked with the same colors of his sister, his neck craning forwards ever so slightly. Temari stood behind him with a slightly confused look, her blond hair, as messy as his own, down and free to spike up whichever way it wished to.

It was no secret to him that his siblings were making an attempt to make up for past discretions, to make him see that he was not alone and he was not a monster. Gaara found it… pleasing in some ways that his only family, those that had treated him almost worse than the entire village, were actually starting to care about him. But on days, nights, such as this he wondered how much they truly did trust him after the amount of time he had changed. He was no longer the killing machine of his past, but he was by no means the perfect angle they were trying to make him into. The recent events featuring his obsession were just the latest proof.

He gave Temari a quick scowl before looking down at the window that was within his sight, his mouth firming up. She was there, craning over a scroll and trying to put her hands into swift signs only to stumble and end up kicking the scroll halfway across the room. And then bring it back and start again. Gaara had been watching whenever they came back to this village for treaty reinforcement and whatever, like a good Kazekage to protect his people and his newly loving family, and he had seen many similar scenes. Temari shifted behind him, though she was accustomed to his long silences before answering her questions he could tell she was still uncomfortable with it.

Finally giving in he muttered, "she's not getting stronger."

Temari blinked a few times then frowned deeply, her hands coming to her elbows. The night was chilly and she wore only a simple night dress that had been given to her by Sakura when they had first come here and she had forgotten her own. Plus… Shikamaru liked the color so she had kept it from the other kunochi. "Who?" she questioned.

Silence once more made her sigh heavily and she padded across the rough roof of their inn. She came to her brothers side, who was now towering compared to the small thing he used to be, so frail and disturbed, and shivered despite herself. Even still the overwhelming chakra that surged off of his body at a regular pulse was enough to make her want to run. The blond Suna native huffed when her brother remained silent and arched her neck over the roof to peer down into the lower ranking neighborhood that they were staying in at her Kazekage's demand. That was when she saw just why he had wanted to stay here, in the virtual slums of the Leaf.

From his view atop his perch Gaara could see clear into someone's house! And not just anyone's house, no, but that of the light brown haired, dark skinned, amber eyed Taijutsu specialist he had beaten into a bloody pulp the last time he had seen her! The cat like ninja was currently kicking a heavy scroll hard enough to make a dent in her bedroom door then punched a wall heavily, leaving what looked to be yet another large crack in its surface. The young woman turned and motioned wildly, yelling things that Temari couldn't hear, at her large black panther that just sat placidly on its own cot. Temari blanched when she finally processed just what was going on.

"Gaara! Is that really-?" before she could finish her question Gaara almost growled low in his throat.

This was his little ritual. His sister was disturbing his information gathering against this girl, something he was not inclined to let continue. He shot her a quick, withering look before turning back to his watching, his entire form letting off a cold aura. "She remains at one level. She isn't getting any better," he muttered in disappointment, finding that Saiyuki's inability to get stronger was taking much of the anticipation and excitement of his obsession away. He should be ruing in the fact that she wasn't getting any more powerful, that she was still weak and easily defeated, but that wasn't how he worked. He liked a good fight, a fight where he had to actually try to win, and currently she would be a mere fly against his sand shields. She was nothing, while he was steadily getting more and more in sync with his demon. It wasn't what he'd hoped for.

He had been hoping her powers would increase as his did, and that they would some day become a match. Like Lee's had. She had been able to break through the sand at one point, had even managed to get an arm free of his prison, and had she been able to improve she might have one day become a threat and thus a worthy opponent. Right now, she was only another Kunochi of Konohagakure.

Temari stared down in continued shock that her brother was showing interest in something. No, not in just something, but in a girl! She had secretly held the belief that her brother didn't know what the difference between boys and girls was and that he was asexual, that he would never even give a girl or a guy a second glance. But the fact that he was practically stalking this girl, however creepy it was for Gaara, showed her that there might be some chances of a future heir to the Kazekage. She watched on as Saiyuki slumped towards the hated scroll and once again began her practice of hand signs and chakra function, trying her hardest to form a genjutsu.

"She doesn't seem very weak," Temari offered in the girls defense. "Compared to you, a lot of people are 'weak' brother."

Gaara chose to ignore his sisters second statement but instead chose the first. "Compared to others, maybe, but she could be stronger. I don't see why she stays at one level like this," he growled.

Temari's expressions suddenly became sad as she shifted and tilted her head to one side, watching as Saiyuki buried her face into her hands after kicking the scroll for the hundredth time that night. He pursed her lips and then slowly suggested, "Maybe she can't? Have you ever thought about that, Gaara?"

Gaara stopped his brooding and blinked a few times. When he heard his sister padding away on the rooftop, unwilling to take his eyes off of the brown haired girl below, he had no choice but to dwell upon these words.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What?" Kiba barked, staring down out of one of the many trees within the confines of the Konohagakure park. There, with her arms crossed over her chest, was the form of his 'rival' turned friend, Saiyuki, with her head cocked at him and her eyebrows raised with her inquired question.

"I said I'll help you get Hinata. You obviously are oblivious to anything a girl would like, nonetheless one like her," Saiyuki stated like it was nothing with a shrug, her hands coming from under her arms. She began to idly twirl a kunai, her eyes half hooded with boredom and waiting for her slowest witted friend to get over whatever kind of brain blockage he was afflicted with at the moment. Sometimes she wondered why she even talked to Kiba at all. He wasn't the sharpest shuriken in the pouch after all. He was just lucky that there was something about him that she couldn't' help but like. Otherwise she was fairly certain she would have caused him severe bodily harm a long time ago.

Kiba gawked at her, his jaw slack. He watched her intently, trying to pick out any possibility for deceit in her posture and chakra patterns. But he couldn't find any, in fact she seemed in the utmost serious about helping him, like it would finally get him out of her hair! Could she blame him for gaping like some kind of grounded fish.

Then something struck him. "What makes you so sure you can help me get Hinata? You're not a normal girl you know, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like the same things as her. You're more into violence and weaponry, and she's into flowers and girl things. You're more like a boy than anything else," Kiba remarked and then held up his hands in defense when she shot him a dark look, her kunai stopping it's twirling and held threateningly in her fingers. He laughed nervously when her teeth were momentarily bared at him and his stupidity before turning back to watch the village from afar, her mysteriously colored eyes clouding over in thought.

She scowled lightly at his comment but still shrugged. "All girls like the same things on their baser levels. We like to be complimented, _not_ insulted, try telling her how pretty you think she is. Also, flowers, or candy of some kind, figure out what her favorite thing to eat is. Do you want my help or not?" Sai questioned stiffly, not liking that she was putting herself out there so much when he had yet to even agree to her assistance. The truth was for the last two and a half months, since their little bonding episode in the rain, she had watched the dog nin flounder in his wooing of the Hyuuga heir, and she was tired of watching him stutter and blush and then end up ruining the conversation. But what was worse was that Hinata seemed just as clueless to his feelings as he was about expressing them. It was not helping matters in the least…

Kiba grumbled under his breath, his lower jaw jutting out in defiance. He swung his legs over the branch he was on and carefully studied the top of her almost blond haired head, trying to figure out if there was any level of dishonestly to all of this. It sounded good. Very good in fact. He had been hoping someone might give him advice for getting Hinata to notice him as much more than some other teammate. The only problem was that when he had asked Shino the boy had merely stared at him through those damn glasses and walked away, and her couldn't ask Naruto cause he wasn't here, and Shikamaru had merely said that girls were too tiresome and not to bother. He was starting to think his entire generation of males were complete idiots and he was going to have to just stare at Hinata helplessly all of his life. Now he was getting female help, the best kind in his opinion, and he hadn't had to embarrass himself for Ino or Ten Ten. It was almost too good to be true. Then again… in his experience as a shinobi if it sounded that way it almost always was.

He wrinkled his nose in momentary disdain. "What's the catch, Saiyuki-chan?" he puzzled.

Saiyuki tensed instantly at his sudden terming of her name. She stared at the village with widened orbs, her form freezing and her mind coming to a crashing halt. Never before had she been referred to by Kiba by anything other than 'cat-stink,' 'cat bitch', 'bitch', 'ass hole', 'flat chest', and her favorite when they had first started training, 'ugly'. So to hear the somewhat affectionate suffix –chan from someone like Kiba was making her very, very confused and stunned at once. She had to stop a few moments to make her brain work before she was able to digest his real question.

Seems the dog boy was ready to be civil. Well if he was then the hell with it, she might as well cut down on the dog breath comments. Though she was still convinced he needed to brush his teeth around fourteen times a day to get rid of the stench.

"No catch, Kiba-kun. Besides, I'm on leave for a few days anyway, I'm a bit burned out with all of the missions lately, and I thought that this could be entertaining. Besides, I'm getting tired of you hanging around me all of the time lately, you're worse than Saito. At least he goes off by himself for like half the day," she commented while stretching her arms above her head.

Kiba growled under his breath but thought for a moment. It was in these moments when he realized just how much like a cat Saiyuki was, without being one. She was independent to a fault, she would rather die than ask for help for small things that she would see as her problem, and if she didn't' like you she did not mince words she would simply say she hated you. It was something he was coming to admire in some aspects and hate in others. Sometimes he was bored and yes if his other teammates were doing crap he'd hunt her down. It was part of being friends after all! But… if she was offering help then who was he to put it down. She was technically a genius, taijutsu wise, and she was a girl. What could go wrong?

Deciding he was better off with another head in this dilemma he huffed gruffly before stating:

"Okay, deal. You better not make me do something stupid, baka-neko, or you'll regret it."

Saiyuki shot him a withering look, her mouth a firm line and her teeth clenched to where it formed a funny line along her jaw bone. Finally the jounin sighed and waved her hand around, signaling that she understood before sliding down the surface of the trunk to sit down on the soft ground of the grass. She looked up to the prefect blue sky with just enough sprinkling of cottony white clouds sailing by and couldn't help the small smile that came to her lips. It had been a while now since she had been this at peace. She was thankful that that horrible month was over and done with and she could move on with her year.

"So what were they like?" Kiba muttered quickly when he had jumped down from the branch and landed with a hushed thud. Saiyuki slid her rounded pupil eye over to him before shrugging her red clad shoulders, shifting her shoulders against the smooth bark of the Konoha cedar.

"Who?"

"You're parents. Ya said that they were murdered. What were they like?"

"Why do you want to know?" Saiyuki suddenly bit, her aura changing considerably in a short amount of time.

Kiba winced but snarled and scooted a few feet away, sitting down with his arms crossed over his chest. "Fine, I won't ask! Geez, just wanted to make conversation!"

"Then don't make it about that, baka-inu," she snarled right back. A silence settled between them and soon Saiyuki's eyes were drifting closed in a light doze from the warmth of the sun upon her already scorched skin. That was before she felt someone poke her with a sharp stick. "If you want to keep your hand Kiba-san…" she growled low in her throat.

"Well, since you're gonna help me get Hinata, then why not start now! Tell me what I need to do," Kiba put his stick down and stared at her intently, his red stripes under his eyes wrinkling with his narrowed orbs. He was interested and he wanted to get started right away. If things went the way he wanted them to then he could ask Hinata out by the end of the week!

Saiyuki on the other hand had other ideas. "Well, you'll need to ease her into the idea of liking you other than a friend or brother figure. Do nice things, like compliment her new outfit, hair cut, the mundane stupid things. Say she looks pretty today, console her when she's being all wishy-washy about Naruto being gone from the village. You have to start slow."

"That sucks ass! Why can't I just ask her out? Why not the ramen place?" he commented, tapping his chin and getting a feral grin, planning out his date.

Saiyuki choked and then looked at him as if he had just grown a third head to accompany the second. She shook her head and put a hand to her forehead. This would be harder than she thought! If the idiot was actually thinking of taking her to that place of all the restaurants in the entire village he was doomed before he started! Thank Kami she had offered him assistance!

Seeing her reaction he raised his eyebrows then furrowed them in an insulted glare. He crossed his arms before grinding out, "What's wrong with there?"

Saiyuki held up three fingers. "This many things are wrong with there. First, you don't know if she even likes ramen! Two, for your first date take her somewhere _nice_. And thirdly, and most importantly, is that is where Naruto likes to go, his favorite place to eat. Even I can see the fact that she would die for him if it made him notice how much she loves him! If you take her there she'll probably think about him the entire time. Not to mention asking her out right now would make things awkward between you two.

"Think of your team Kiba, if you were to jeopardize that, and if you don't do this just right, then the team will be dissolved and Tsunade-baa-chan will punish you and assign you all to different areas. Think, Kiba-kun," the cat jounin stated sharply before thumping him upside the head.

Kiba almost whimpered as he hung his head. He had wanted to ask her out sooner not later, this was just making him more depressed over his feelings for the heir. "I've liked her since we were in the academy. It was just some kind of little kid crush, ya know? But when we got to be in a team together… it got worse. She as so pretty, and after a while, she got stronger and stronger, she wasn't as timid anymore. It's just that she's obsessed with Naruto!"

"Kinda like you're obsessed with her?" Saiyuki scoffed and had to jump back as he tried to run her through with a wave of Kunai. "HEY!"

"Shut it!" he grumbled before standing and watching the academy get out for the day just beyond the hills of the park. It was hard to believe that he was now sixteen and far gone from his days in there. It was almost the good life back then. He didn't' have to worry about missions, life and death shit, or about how his feelings for a fellow ninja would affect the rest of the village. When had things gotten so complicated.

Saiyuki watched him brood with a bored look, her arms once again crossed over her chest. Finally, she snorted and waved him off in a shooing motion. "Well, you'll never get Hinata to accept you as a boyfriend if you just stand around here. Go, go start your little wooing exercises!" And get out of my hair, she thought smugly as he looked funny at her. When he didn't move she sighed and pushed him towards the village.

Taking the hint finally Kiba up and left, his hands shoved into his pockets and his mind reeling. Great. Just what he needed. Saiyuki alone was a harsh teacher, and now she was his love coach? This didn't bode well. Then again it was better than what he'd been doing by himself.

Saiyuki watched him walk away with a slightly confused look on her face. She gripped an area somewhere between her heart and her rib cage, her mouth pursed and her other hand gripping into a fist. She was doing the right thing. He was like a pathetic lost dog without the Hyuuga. Then why the hell was something in her screaming she'd done something wrong?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shino was once again idly watching bugs in his free time. It wasn't something anyone else but his family in the village considering soothing or even entertaining, but luckily he was an Aubrame. And currently, he was having a very interesting conversation with a large beetle, who was having a staring contest with him. He had needed to clear his head, he had needed to think of something other than what had been clouding his thoughts for a good month now, and had thus resorted to the one thing that had always helped before.

Talking with bugs. The only problem was that his head wasn't in it. The aching in his chest had gotten steadily worse, he had talked to his father about it… but the man had merely looked at him with an amused gaze, patted his shoulder, and stated that he would understand if he really thought on it. So Shino had. And he had cornered that it had to do with his latest friend, the taijutsu master and elite jounin. But that hadn't helped mattered much since he had pretty much already discovered that it was her behind all of this before. So he had come out here to try and distract himself from constantly thinking on it now, finding that his mind was too busy and buzzing with thoughts for his liking. Especially when it involved someone that he had just met and was just starting to open up to. The last thing he needed was to creep her out with talk like she made his chest hurt.

She'd run away screaming if he told her that. He idly thumbed a leaf as he listened to the beetle talk about how the weather was shifting again and that fall would be on its way soon, so to prepare by gathering up plenty of food for winter. He had also heard that there were some enemy beetles in the neighborhood that were trying to steal his mates. All fascinating, but his mind was not getting any quieter.

He had heard from Kiba earlier that day that Saiyuki would be helping him get Hinata to agree to be his girlfriend. And in a way he was glad that Kiba had absolutely no apparent interest in the jounin cat kunochi, and in another he was disturbed at his readiness to thank Kami for his friends disinterest. What would he have felt if Kiba had said he was going to go out with Saiyuki instead of Hinata? He probably would have gotten angry, depressed, and possessive all at the same time. She was one of the only people, much less girls, that spent any time with him whatsoever. The other times were spent with Kiba and at his house or speaking with bugs. It was no wonder that he felt a strong attachment to the girl that had willingly come to him and spoken with him, unmindful of the bugs that crawled beneath his skin.

She had saved him in a way. She was the one that had told him that it wasn't strange that he could command his kikai, that it was just his bloodline limit and that it wasn't anything to be ashamed of; she thought it was an interesting trait. She had shown him that there were other people in the world than his teammates and small circle of friends that appreciated just how helpful his bugs could be. She was one of the only people not completely grossed out at the thought of there being thousands of beetles under his skin constantly feeding on his chakra. Saiyuki had even commented once that he must have a massive amount of energy to constantly give it to his symbiotic partners.

Shino sighed heavily, somewhat uncharacteristic of him, and slouched down slightly. The beetle by this time had figured out that he was bored with the conversation and was teetering off, muttering about invading males and how it was unjust. He stared down at the mossy ground of his families small grounds, his hand coming to support his heavy head.

He… he didn't know what would happen if he actually listened to the damn pain in his chest. He thought knew what it was. He was actually pretty sure he knew what it was, but didn't' think it was possible. Someone like Saiyuki wouldn't think twice about a guy like him. She was unusual, exotic, and so much different than the usual Konoha kunochi.

She didn't care about getting dirty, she actually relished in it and said that if she was training and didn't get filthy that the whole session was a waste. She was toned and taught, built in some aspects like a boy, with muscles much more defined and larger than girls her age or older. Her hair was interesting in that she bound it in tight, dark grey fabric from the base of her head down to the middle of her back, and her fashion sense was all function over form. She was the opposite of someone like Sakura, she even had a brash and somewhat crude mouth, saying whatever popped into her head even if it be a swear. By all means she should be someone that Shino disliked, because she was so brash and so almost arrogant that it should drive him insane.

But instead it fascinated him. He wanted to know more, he needed to know more about her. Whenever he wasn't around her he would think about her for a good hour after they parted ways. And he was even starting to dream about her. It was disturbing him considering he had never felt this way about a girl or anyone in his entire life. He was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with him. Was he a stalker? Was he sick? Would she hate him if he ever told her these things?

How had his simple life gotten so complicated in the space of a few months? She had come in like a hurricane and was settled in like a mountain, refusing to leave. Shino was a guy that liked order, neatness, the minimalism of all that life had to offer. And with the single presence of one person his life had been turned on its head and he was being forced into the light of being social and hold up an actual conversation. Just what did she want from him?

What did he want from her…? Shino blinked at that last thought, having let his mind run wild for a few minutes to see what it came up with, and found that he was anxious with that conclusion. They were friends, what more was there to hope for from Saiyuki? He wasn't a fool, he had seen couples walking around Konoha holding hands, whispering to each other, laughing, blushing… kissing. He had always assumed he was fine with not having that, with marrying someone from the very far off other Aubrame clans so that his marriage would be decision free. He had also always assumed that he would never meet someone that might make him question that line of thought, that maybe he wasn't fine with it and he wanted a normal relationship with all of the hand holding he could take, all of the whispering, hugging, oh Kami it burned him just to be close to someone that way.

He swore under his breath before pushing down his hood and running his fingers through his spiky, unruly brown hair. He had spent almost his entire teenaged years pressing down that need and want, saying that it wasn't for him, that no girl in the village could want that of him. He had numbed that burning and had even convinced himself that he was fine with a marriage of politics and convince, that he could learn to love his appointed wife. He just wasn't meant for a normal courting. But those feelings were back with a vengeance, his barriers had been broken, and it was all he could do to hold it in.

He had not been this depressed in years. He had been okay lying to himself, but it was not working anymore. With a grunt the bug nin took off his circular glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to rid himself in some way of the ache in his chest. Shino sometimes hated it when his father was right.

He wondered off handedly if maybe something was physically wrong with him rather than he might just like someone. Perhaps a trip to Sakura was in order?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kiba gulped hard as he fiddled with the bottom of his leather jacket. His jaw was shaking slightly, like the rest of his body, and his stomach was doing flip flops horribly. His already red tinged cheeks were seeping with more and more crimson with each and every passing moment as he thought about starting what would change his and Hinata's friendship forever! Well… minus the other fourteen times already that he had tried to ease into the whole, 'I really like you' business. Fuck, he was going to die alone.

The sun of Konoha was coming down brightly onto him from the afternoon position as he waited patiently outside of one of her favorite café's. This was after all where she went every third day after a mission, to replenish her wardrobe from the ones that had gotten ripped and torn. He chewed the inside of his lip, trying to think of something suave and debonair to say to her on why on earth he was stalking her! Growling under his breath the dog nin ran his hand through his hair anxiously before starting to thump on the bench he was leaning on. He could always say that he was just going through the market district… in the female area… for kunochi battle field styles… in front of her favorite store. Okay so that wasn't going to work! If anything that made him sound like some crazy guy that wanted to chop her up into little pieces and use her innards as some kind of strange lamp fixture!

Buzzing, happy people were walking by the sweating jounin as he continually bombarded his poor brain for something to say. Finally, just when his heart was about to stop dead in his throat from the anticipation and when he was getting far too many butterflies and was about to walk away from it all then and there a dangling of a door's bell sounded, altering Kiba that this was now or never.

And out of the shop strolled the figure of… Ino. That annoying, high pitched Ino that got on his nerves and made him feel like tearing off his own ears to get relief from her shrill voice. It didn't help that she had seen him standing there and was waving at him and making a straight bee line for the anxious dog, who was now looking from the coming blond to the door and back again. God damn it he had nearly had a heart attack and now it wasn't even the girl he was hoping for!? He hated his life… It was almost as bad as Hana making him eat spinach.

"Kiba-kun! Fancy meeting you here," Ino said happily when she came to a stop before him, her hands on her shapely hips. She cocked her blond haired head at him, her blue eyes analyzing, before asking, "you don't strike me as a cross dresser, why're you here?"

Kiba's eyebrow twitched when he heard her imply that he dressed in women's clothing. He had to resist the urge to pounce on her and start pounding her into the ground, considering she was a girl and all he held back. Though if she kept on talking about how it would be okay if he was, that was just what he liked, she didn't look down on it, and how she would have to tell a few people though, then he would overlook her gender and start to throttle her. He plastered on a wide grin as he slid his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, his dark eyes narrowing marginally. "I'm not, I'm actually here…to uh," Kiba had to bit down hard into the side of his cheek to stop the blood from rushing to his face, causing it instead to flow into his mouth and fill it with the tangy liquid.

"To, uh, what?" Ino asked, putting her shopping bag over her shoulder.

"I'm here to hang with Hinata okay? I heard she likes to go in there so I'm waiting for her to come out!" Kiba snarled bitterly, not liking that she was treating him like a simpleton. Though the dog nin was indeed not the smartest boy of their class he always was by far not to the dumbest, and he knew when he was being talked down to. Then again, Ino had gotten into the habit of addressing everyone that way since her and Sakura had had their huge falling out in the fifth grade.

Ino raised her eyebrows at him, her smile spreading almost sinisterly. She tossed her now long blond hair over her shoulder and glanced once more towards the store, her smirk now disturbing the inu. The last thing he needed was for her to get the _right_ idea about this and to blather it all over Konoha and exposing his secret to the girl he liked before he had a chance to tell her. Oh Kami would that be mortifying.

"And here I thought you and that Haraku chick were together! Oh well, I suppose Hinata is a much better match for the likes of you anyway," Ino stated with a chuckle at him before turning and waving behind her head, walking down the street and towards the upper west district, where the richer half of the village lived. He gritted his fangs watching her walk away, his annoyance now through the roof for the simple fact that she could afford to go shopping frivolously while he and his sister had to save up for simple new uniforms.

Then what she had said struck him and he blinked a few times before spluttering. Him and Sai!? That would be insane! He wrinkled his nose in distaste, his arms crossing over his chest peevishly. Why on earth would someone think that he would go out with someone like that macho chick, besides the fact that he was spending almost as much time with her as he did with his current love interest? But seriously, Saiyuki was too violent, too spastic, too much like himself really for him to even consider her as anything more than a friend. Just as he was trying to get the idea out of his head the door opened again with a ding and out walked the object of his affection and the second member of his squad. Taking a deep breath and pushing the disturbing conversation, however short, with Ino from his mind he let out a call and waved his hand, smiling from ear to ear.

Hinata started at him being there then grinned shyly before walking over, holding a considerably smaller bag than that of the other kunochi. Her white eyes locked with his when she was before him, her somewhat longer purple hair shifting in a small breeze. He had to hold in his small noise of admiration at being so close to her after a good two days of separation now.

"Kiba-kun, how are you?" Hinata asked in that small voice of hers that made Kiba want to just hold her close to him and protect her from the world. She was like a doll in some aspects, though her days of incredible weakness were over, she was still something precious and valuable to him and she too could break, like every other thing and person in the world. He would give his legs and arms just to see her never get hurt again like she had when she had fought with her cousin…

Kiba ran a hand over the back of his neck and beamed at her in the same cocky way he always did. "Oh, I'm good, Hinata-chan. I was just wandering around and remembered how you told me you liked this store so I wanted to wait around and then just spend some time with ya. Since, you know, my training with Saiyuki-san has been taking up so much time lately!" he lied quickly, not knowing just how he had managed to pull something that strange together so quickly. But he couldn't just come out and say that he wanted to be around her so that he could make her feel comfortable with the idea of going out with him as boyfriend and girlfriend, no! She would stare at him like he'd grown a second head and either laugh or run away. His ego couldn't take either blows.

Hinata was quiet a moment, looking like she was debating the matter, when finally her stomach growled loudly. She put a hand to it and laughed nervously, blushing in embarrassment. "Actually, I am kinda hungry, Kiba-kun. Would you like to go get some… ramen?" she asked with a slight smile, her piercing eyes holding his.

Kiba felt something in his stomach jiggle at that. His legs were jelly and he couldn't help the small exhalation that came from his mouth, his heart pounding in his throat. She had asked him to lunch. Sure it had been as friends, as only she couldn't see the blush that was creeping its way slowly to his treacherous cheeks, but it counted to the chuunin all the same. He nodded quickly, putting his arms behind his head and glancing down to Akamaru who had been by his side quietly the entire time. The big white dog glanced from owner to girl then wagged his tail, instantly knowing that Hinata would end up giving him half of her bowl. The two walked off with the dog boasting about how he had actually managed to hit his current sensei a few times. He left out the part where she had returned the favor around fifty times and had made him black out with a shot to his neck. She didn't need to know that part, ever.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sensei… I need a word with you," the calm of the once quiet jounin break room was shattered. The click of a locking door informed the man in question that there was no getting out of this, and consider who was the one that had spoken he realized even if he did get out of the room she would just hunt him down and demand to have this conversation.

Light flooded in through the ground to ceiling window, bathing the ratty old couch and several arm chairs near it with golden light of Konoha. The bathroom was small as was to be expected for a mere break room where the jounin elite of the village just came to unwind before heading out to their homes, do paper work, or go on missions. Posters lined the wall, some formal and reminders of the village they worked for and what their purpose as shinobi of the leaf was, others were of a selected band, club, or even a particular jounin that all of the girls had found sexy and pasted onto the wall with an ungraspable jutsu. Poor Genma's head still hasn't come off its ego trip since then. There were several tables with hard, plastic chairs around the fake wood where people would randomly come and eat lunch if there was no where else to go. Stale coffee was still in the maker from whoever had made it this morning, and judging from how full it was both of the jounin in the room wagered it was Anko who liked to put grounds in the actual drink.

The man in question turned with a hand on his hip, his eyebrows furrowed. The light struck at the tight green jumpsuit that was stretched over his body and it glimmered on his unnaturally glossy black hair. He stared down his former student who had her arms crossed deftly over her chest, letting him know with a mere look that this was a topic that could not be dropped.

Gai smirked and put his hands behind his head, surveying the older version of his once pride and joy genin and chuunin. "You only call me sensei when you want something. Heck, you didn't even call me that when you were on my squad," Gai commented with a small raise of his eyebrows. From what little time that he had spent with the very brown haired girl before him as his pupil he could only remember the shear tenacity with which she approached all things in her life. And taijutsu was no exception to the rule. She had ripped into his teachings, learned every move, kick, and even breath that went with it, and had advanced to jounin in a blur of activity. Her former teammates, however, had unfortunately kicked the bucket a few years back after she'd been promoted, having gone on a mission far too dangerous for their own good. Gai remembered how the youngest Taijutsu master in rank had reacted, withdrawing and refusing to talk to even him or her pseudo guardian.

"Yea, well, I think I will," Saiyuki muttered. She shifted her weight to where her small hips popped out to one side, her hands in her pockets deep and a look of deep dissatisfaction on her face.

Gai smiled softly at his former pupil and leaned on the kitchen counter. He knew what this was about, he had seen this coming from a mile away. Though she had rocketed through the ranks with little regarded for her own safety or for anyone around her, her mind set on becoming the strongest she could, he could tell that there was going to be a wall that she would hit. She was a fighter, fists to fists, punishing blow for blow, and that could only be refined to a point. Your body could only get so strong, your bones so dense, your muscles so hard, until you reached your pinnacle. And Saiyuki had nothing to fall back on other than Taijutsu. She didn't know much ninjutsu, as much his fault as her own, and she could not do genjutsu to save her life. She was lucky to be a kunochi in fact, lucky to be a shinobi of notable merit with such lacking abilities.

He could see the resentment forming in her eyes already before he even said it. "This is about your inability to progress, isn't it?" he questioned, forgoing the usual semantics and posing he did with Lee. He knew that Sai would storm from the room if he resorted to his usual tactics to make a situation lighter; she was always too serious for her own good.

Her amber eyes burned at him and he swallowed consciously. There was something alarming about those eyes, it wasn't that they were particularly piercing or hard or even cruel, it was just… different. "How the hell did you know?" she snapped at him, evidently put out by his observation.

Gai sighed to himself and shifted against the counter. He watched her for a few seconds before watching the outside of Konoha, a small frown tickling his face. When he could hear her once again shuffling her feet, letting out irregular breaths giving away her discomfort at admitting a weakness, he started to tick his options through his head. He had to be careful with her. She was sharp and edgy, right now she was like a bomb ready to go off because of her frustration at her own inferiority and just her shear personality. He hated that about Saiyuki.

"We've been through this, Saiyuki-chan. I knew this was coming, as did you. You can only get so strong until you plateau and there's no where else for you to go but a stalemate," Gai commented with a wave of his hand. Indeed they had gone over this the night before her jounin exams. He had almost begged her to hold it off, that she needed a few more years, that if she didn't hone her chakra now and learn ninjutsu and genjutsu while she could that it would be much, much harder for her later in life. And here they stood, talking about the very same matter as two years ago.

Saiyuki grunted somewhere to his left and he saw her out of the corner of his walk over to one of the dying crimson arm chairs. She put her hands on the back of it, staring out at her city, her village, with a frown creasing her face. "I didn't want to admit you were right, okay? Happy, sensei?" she said with a softening tone, her face stoic. She hated admitting she was wrong about something; he had once commented that she would rather die than to admit she had made a mistake of any kind.

Gai shrugged it off and walked over, putting a hand on her shoulder. He felt her tense slightly then relax into the touch, closing her eyes and letting her defenses fall considerably. "You were young and rash, Saiyuki-chan. You still are. You are only a teenager, you will rush to decisions, they will be wrong half of the time, and you will get yourself into messes that will seem like the end of the world. Believe it or not I was once your age, I understand," she glared at him and he patted her on the head affectionately.

Then he sobered and so did she. He rolled his shoulders and stared her straight into the eye to get his point across. "It won't be easy. Your chakra is almost completely set in its circulation, it will not want to change from using primarily taijutsu and just pumping it into the muscles. It will fight you, and it will hurt, and you will get angry."

"I'm ready for that," Saiyuki stated firmly.

"I hope you are," Gai said. "You will not be getting special treatment just because you were a former student. We do things the way we always have, with difficult training, early mornings and late nights."

"I remember," she said to him quickly, rubbing her arms and glancing at the binding she kept over them. She was reminded of the scars that littered her hands and feet from her training with Gai-sensei when she was only eleven.

Pride swelled within Gai as he watched Saiyuki nod and then cross her arms yet again, determination set on her face. It would be a long, hard road to get her body to even perform a simple jutsu other than tai, but it would be worth it in the end. She would get stronger and it was his duty as a ninja of Konoha to give her the chance to become a better fighter for the village. Patting her on the back he went back over to the now whistling tea pot he had put on to make some of his famous jasmine tea, smiling to himself. "We start in two days."

"Hai, Gai-sensei!"


End file.
